daddyville

It feels really good to get my daughter enrolled in a mini pre-school program. She's 3 now and to have her going to a little interactive pre-school kids' group 4 days out of the week for a hour and a half in the middle of the day feels great! She loves it! It's about time for her to hang out with her own people for a little while every day. I'm sure it must feel great to spend time with her peers that are just as energetic as she!
They have a nice little program of mixed activities: inside interactive play time, story telling, playground time (outside), as well as special activities like the Easter egg hunt that they did today in celebration of this Sunday.
The teachers say that she plays nice and is very polite which I was very pleased to hear. So far, so good on Shayla's peer to peer socialization. Yay!

My daughter Shayla is such an energetic buzz to be around. She has so much energy! As a parent you really have to learn how to funnel that! I've found that to be my best recourse in managing how that energy plays out. She's like a moving 'buzz bomb' that seeks out engagement and interaction on that level of high energy. It's a freight train in motion that you kind of have to find ways to run along side of without inadvertently, unconsciously attempting to block the energy. The age relationship in our little nuclear family is as follows: 3, 36, 42. You can see the variance here, so our work is obvious when our 3 year old is building a new civilization while her mother and I are just looking for a good place to put our feet up. :-) "Why did you decide to have a kid at your ages", you might be thinking? I think we were just bored, which I assure you we are not anymore.
Honestly though, one of the most exciting things at this self-assertive age of three, aside from trying to keep her from accidentally creating a natural disaster unawares or tripping over her own feet because she forgot to put one foot in front of the other is having great, creative Dali-esque conversations with her. Man, I tell you, This is where it's at with my little girl! She is a great conversationalist and is only getting better as the days progress.
The rate at which her comprehension is expanding is surprising. Watching her find the right places to use the words she's learning is really entertaining. She will use new words and phrases almost immediately after picking them up. Just today as she and I were tooling through the grocery store picking up a few things that we needed at the house she was doing her usual zealous interaction with any willing participants at the store except that she was using a phrase out of place. She was waving to people and saying "Hi", and then after they said "Hi" back to her or even before they got that far, she'd say "No thanks, no thanks" in this kind of happy 'go lucky' tone like how you might respond if someone offered you water and you weren't thirsty for any. It was really comical. I wondered, "Why's she saying that"? I never did figure it out, but it was funny to observe and I caught myself giving people this look that suggested a 'shrug' as a kind of like "I don't know" apology. I smirked as I sped my cart off down the lane trying to excuse myself from the scene of a crime of etiquette infringement, except that she kept doing it over and over again at what seemed like every chance she got. I couldn't 'get away' from the embarrassment of it! "Jeez kid", I kept thinking squelching my laughter! "Way to put your dad in a spot", I thought. Oh well..(sigh). I'm getting good at that--the 'Oh well' take on things--and the sigh. Later in the evening her mother was doing some art with Shayla with Shayla's paper and paints. They were creating something together and Shayla would periodically reach in front of and across her mother to get something she wanted and nonchalantly say, "excuse me, coming through"! We thought, "Where's she getting that"? She didn't do it just once, but several times. Huh.? Okay, that must've come from her play date that she had today, we thought. Today was her first day at what looks to be a regular association at an organized daily 'play date' at a community center near our house. Wow, that was quick. Such it is with these young sponges. Such it is....
There's never a dull moment when you live with one of these little, vibrant, beautifully alive kiddos. It's always been 'monkey see, monkey do', but something has changed.... The monkey is getting sharper. Uh oh.

Shayla loves people and constantly makes her parents interact with others when we go out. Good going Shayla!!

"Did you wipe?", and "Are you sure that you did?", are questions that I ask everyday of my three year old daughter, and many times a day. I am sure that this is just about the only time that one human being asks this question of another human being.
Finally now, we are at that point where it is fairly safe to send her to the bathroom by herself to pee---Fairly safe, certainly not fool-proof. What can we say? We take joy in the fact that we can send her to do ANYTHING by herself and so we take FULL advantage of this Growing opportunity, however it comes with it's own risks and set of small disasters....like today.
We (Shayla and I) are out on our front porch this afternoon when Shayla informs me, "Daddy, I have to go pee!" while grabbing herself with unabashed force.
"Okay. Well then, go for it", I tell her. "You feel alright with that don't you", I ask?
"Yeah..", she says while running off, because she's waited too long before announcing her need.
"Ok then. Success to you", my words trailing after her.
She then comes back in about 5 minutes with new pants on. "Hhmmm", I think.
"What's up with the new pants? We need to put the others back on Shayla", I say as I get up while I'm speaking, knowing that I need to investigate this little forray into autonomy.
"So, why did you change pants", I say walking down the hall towards the bathroom?
"Because the others are wet", she says.
"Aahh, so you waited too long before giving in to the need to go potty, and you wet yourself", I say after spying her jeans lying on the floor near the base of the adult's toilet. I pick up the pants and see how they are wet down the legs, but then...Hey, that's not all! I realize that I am standing in wetness! I look down and the base of the adult potty is not the only thing that is glistening wet, but I look across to where her trainer potty is sitting against the wall opposite the big potty and then it dawns on me what she has done. She usually hops right up on the big potty to go to the bathroom, but this time she decided to use the trainer potty. Why? Good question. Nostalgia?? I don't know. She is an accomplished 'big potty' user after all. Today however, she decided she would pop a squat on the little trainer potty and then since that potty does not 'flush' she decided that she would empty the 'inner bowl' into the big potty--to show what a big girl she is--and then flush it. Apparently, it mostly went according to plan, except that she spilled about 90% of it on the floor as she was trying to enact this delicate feat of balance and coordination.
'Daddy to The Rescue'. So I wipe it up as I remind her that she need not be concerned about dumping the little potty into the big potty. "Mommy and daddy will take care of that for you", I tell her, but I know full well that she doesn't want anybody 'taking care of Anything for Her'. She is a Big Girl Now, and don't you know that Daddy!!? "Yes, you are a big girl", daddy is thinking. He's also thinking that this was the harbinger for the question that is begging to be asked, "You're really wanting to go to Goodwill, aren't you Little Potty"? That will take care of that. ;-) 'Multiple Choice' potties.... What was I thinking?I should've gotten hip to this 3 yr. old's conundrum a little while back. Why not make it a little easier on everyone?
Welcome to my world. ;-)