Closing the baby chapter

My little baby started preschool on August 30, 2010. I feel like I hit the jackpot with his school. It's a lab school at a nearby university and usually has a year long waiting list. One of my friends was on the list for 9 months and got in and wanted me to be one of the people authorized to pick her daughter up. I went to get fingerscanned and set up for that and it was 2 weeks before school started. The receptionist was nice enough to give me a tour and I was impressed by the security of the school, the accessibility that the parents had to be involved in the classroom and that the curriculum is research based instead of religious or ideologically based. I put my name on the waiting list very unsure but I guess after a year of waiting many people felt hopeless about their child getting in and went elsewhere because we got an acceptance letter the next week!
The program requires that the parents enroll at the university and go to an early childhood education course for 2 semesters. It's one night a month for 2 hours for 8 months. I think it's great but I've heard other people say they would never do that. The parents are also obligated to have one of them volunteer in the classroom as a parent aide one morning a month for 3 hours.
I already did mine and it was stressful dealing with all those 3 year olds and I was ready to be done at the end! Preschool teachers have a tough job. It's not all storytime and snacks. The biggest challenge is the ability to keep calm and not scream when some kid openly defies you again and again and you need to go back and redirect over and over.
I thought Miles would have some problems with adjusting and he has. But Ms. Geri did win him over before he even got to school and it was so simple - she sent him a postcard in the mail! It was the first piece of mail he has gotten in a very very long time. He loves that postcard and will show it off and read it to anyone who comes to the house.
His school even has an outdoor classroom that he can be enrolled in next year. I am pretty sure we will do it as it will probably be the only time in his life when he will get to spend the majority of his day out doors and playing and learning. Plus I want him to be with all the hippie kids whose parents would enroll them in an outdoor classroom!! Bound to be good kids and parents who hike and love nature like we do.
He had his 3 year checkup early since he had to do the school health card and September 9 he was 35 pounds and 100 centimeters tall. I dont know why they do pounds and metric but they do. Either way he's in the 90th percentile for height and weight. But the pediatrician ( I miss Dr. Katz, what a caring and wonderful first pediatrician he had) whose name I forget got on our case about the binky. She had little interest in Miles and mostly spoke to me to ask me things that he could have answered if she gave time. Anyway she gave him a lecture about the binky and was on her way. So that night we painfully went without it. It was not nearly so bad that night actually, just took a long time and he sort of mournfully whined. But nap and bedtimes the next 4 days were awful. He cried like a heroin addict without a fix. I couldn't take it. And too late I learned about the process to cut the binky. I now hate that pediatrician. Really, she couldn't give me that information? I really don't see the point in needlessly making a child cry about missing something he loves. He got past it but now naptimes have gotten really challenging and he is resisting the nap and passing out at 4pm.
So to replace the binky he has been very resourceful. During the day he wants chewing gum constantly. He must chew about 5-7 pieces of gum a day. And at night he wants the book I just got done reading him for bedtime story and he lies in bed and "reads" himself to sleep. I went in there tonight around 930 to get his book out of his bed so he wouldnt sleep on one and he'd gone to his bookshelf and had 3 books and they were all on his bed in a little pile and the last one was laying open and he was sleeping curled around them. Such a sweet little man.
He has been naming inanimate things. Our car has been named Hansitafam. I get harassed to "bathe" Hansitafam, "feed" Hansy and get reports from the back seat that Hansy is driving so crazy or Hansy is driving so safe.
He named his tummy Tump. He will tell me "Tump is hungry" "Te Tump says he needs a snack". "Te Tump has milk and juice and crackers in him".
Other names:
nose - Humpennose
Fingers - Finks
Ears -Finklears
Hair - Hairkikt
Lips -Lipsy
Penis -Petesys
Bottom - Bumtix
and theres more but I cant remember them.

And he has started playing board games. First played Candy Land September 15. He is pretty good at playing it already and loves to play. He doesn't have the longest attention span so I usually stack the decks so the ice cream or lollipop card come up after a couple turns so he can play till the end.
He HATES to lose. Such a bad loser. One time I got there first and he started screaming and crying and hit the pieces off the board and stormed off. I have no idea where he learned this behavior.

Tonight we played Candyland with Norris via Skype. That was pretty cool and I think Norris enjoyed it too.
Ok Miles, enough memories for now, hope you like these someday and are not embarrassed Bunky.