Toddler 2

Just a quick little note on Eric's transition to his new class at school.  He has been in Toddler 1 since this summer and he LOVES it.  His favorite thing about the class are the teachers - he loves each of them so much and will tell me every single day which teacher sat next to him, talked to him, helped him with his work, etc.  He has also grown a lot in this class -- his speech is crazy -- complex sentences with lots of new words and phrases.  His imaginative play has really expanded and we are forever pretending to be pirates or animals going on an adventure.  Academically, he seems to be excelling as well.  I've mentioned before that he's not as open as Olivia telling us what he knows, but we have been working with him at home on a few workbooks or Brain Quest and he definitely is mastering the concepts/letters/numbers that he should.

He is also starting to get a little more interested in friends.  I think because he hears Olivia talking about "best friends" so often, he has started using that phrase too.  Lately he will come home and tell us about a kid that he played with on the playground, or sat next to at lunch and label that kid as his "best friend." 

We knew he was going to transition the week after Valentine's Day, so we had been talking about it for a few weeks.  He is old enough now that he was able to plainly and clearly tell us he was scared about it. So we talked about being brave, how it was normal to feel that way, and he went to school that morning with his puppies (appropriately named Blue Puppy and Other Blue Puppy).  We also watched a Daniel Tiger episode about finding something familiar when you're in a new situation and we talked about what might be familiar in his new class.  And finally on the big day we both walked into school a little nervous.   

When I went to pick him up that evening, he ran to me and said "I liked it! I didn't cry and I didn't run away!"  Matt and I were laughing that we didn't even know he knew what running away was or that it was on the table, but we were thrilled he liked his new class.  He apparently listened to a story, learned about traffic lights, got reunited with his old pal Amelia and they played pretend together.  Then he got to go on the playground with his new class.  His teacher, Kayla - who Olivia had as well - told me that she was working with him and kept trying to get him to say her name.  He refused.  But when it was time to go line up to go outside, she felt a little hand in hers and realized Eric had come next to her and held her hand.  I guess he was feeling a little nervous about going outside with his new class so they walked together and then he apparently gave her a smile, let go of her hand and ran off.

I think this new class will be a good adjustment for our little guy.