on top of spaghetti

Juma learned the "On Top of Spaghetti" song in school, and entertained us with his rendition of it--skipping lines and a bit out of tune--during dinner.

On top of spaghetti
I had a meatball
'Til somebody sneezed
Aaaa-chooo!
It rolled under the bush
And turned into mush
Early next summer
It grew into a tree
It had lovely meatballs
And tomato sauce!

After about the fifth time, I asked him if meatballs really could grow on trees.

Juma: No!
Sarah: Why not?
Juma: Because!
Sarah: But why? Let's go out and plant a meatball and see what happens.
Juma: No, that won't work.
Sarah: Why can't they grow into trees?
Juma: Because they grow into bushes!

After we laughed and laughed, he finally concluded it's because meatballs are made from meat, which comes from animals, which grow in their mommies. And meatballs don't have seeds.

"I won't miss you"

Today is Juma's last day of school before the holiday break, so the teachers invited the parents to come for singing time and lunch. Juma enjoyed having me there with him, and showered me with hugs, kisses, and cuddles. During lunch, he wanted me to let him know exactly when I would be leaving, "because I want to give you a big hug and a kiss." When I was leaving, he did so, and then told me, "I won't miss you!" during the afternoon.

Now, that's not something a parent would normally want to hear from a child, but it was comforting to know that Juma is adjusted enough to school that he thoroughly enjoys it--and doesn't even complain about nap time. When I pick him up these days, it's not "Mommy! Let's go home!" Instead it's, "Mommy! Can I stay and play some more?"

We'll see what three week of vacation does to his adjustment. And to our sanity, since outside play time is very restricted in Connecticut winters.

Speaking of insanity, I'm working on my last final. Just a few more hours...

physical

I've had to pull Juma out of school two days this week to go to the doctor for his school physical. The doctors checked out all the normal stuff, how are his gross motor skills, his fine motor skills, can you understand his speech, does he eat well, etc. Check his eyes, mouth, ears (ear tubes still in), nose. Juma was very cooperative and generally happy about the whole thing, except for the part where he had to show first the nurse practitioner-in-training and then the doctor his bottom to see if his eczema is clearing up. He's old enough to be a bit embarrassed about such things.

The next day we had to come back for an eye exam (passed with flying colors!) and to give a blood sample and--gasp!--a urine sample. Juma was pretty weirded out by that whole thing. He was quite brave about the blood sample, until the nurse told us she needed not a finger prick but a full needle-in-the-elbow sample. It took me and two nurses to hold him down and get the blood, the poor thing.

He got sympathetic looks from everyone in the health center as he left, sniffling, and holding his "wounded" arm out at an angle for at least an hour afterward. "If I move it, it will hurt!" He kept his sleeve rolled up and the bandaid on until bathtime, when the bandaid fell off. He was really concerned until he saw the needle poke: "Hey, it's really small!" he said happily, and forgot about the whole thing.

school

I can tell I'm enmeshed in the semester again when I can't think of anything to post other than work and school. And no one wants to hear about randomized control trials and capacity development and new social movements theory.

Oh, wait, I don't even want to.

But Juma's school is fun. Yesterday Juma and a friend dug up a "dog bone" treasure, and today a butterfly is working its way out of a chrysallis. This morning we drew coconut and banana trees in pastels, fashioned a map to his school out of pegs, and read about apple picking at a local orchard. And he gets two snack times, lunch, and a nap time. I'm jealous!

He's having a little trouble adjusting to full time, though. He has plenty of fun while at school and never acts out, but he hates nap time (because he doesn't nap), and sometimes just can't stand to wait until 4:30 or 5 for pick up time. Every morning he wants to discuss, "Okay, when are you picking me up today? Before second snack time? Can't you come before nap time? Or how about when we're having second outside-play-time?"

Yesterday I picked him up during second outside-play-time, and he actually jumped up and down for joy and said, Yippee! But then he wanted to stay and play for another half hour. So we did. Playing at his school is way more interesting than playing at our house, where I can't help but start thinking about the laundry, the dishes, the homework hiding in my backpack.

did you miss me?

Juma had his first full-length school day yesterday. I left him there at about 8:30am in the company of his new favorite teacher, John, and got back to pick him up at 4:40pm. Half of the kids had already been picked up, so I was a little worried Juma might have been desperately waiting for me to show up.

When he saw me, he had a huge smile on his face and came to give me a big hug. His teacher said he had a good day. On the way home, I asked him, "Were you waiting a long time for me to come?"

"Well," he explained, "the teachers said that mommies and daddies will come at different times today to pick up their kids." Phew, they had prepped him so he wouldn't wonder where his mom was if Simon and Aloni and Eliana had already gone home with their parents.
"Did you miss us while you were at school?" I asked.
He thought for a second. "No," was his answer.
"Not even a little bit?"
He smiled.

first day of school

Juma had his first day of school at his new preschool. He was nervous leaving the house, but by the time he got to his new classroom and checked out all the great stuff he could do (color, read, dress up, build an airport out of blocks!) he was fine. When it was time to say goodbye, we were more upset than he was.

It's been nice to spend all summer with Juma, but he's happy to be back into the structured play of school. And he even made a new friend, Simon. His teacher tells me they "rebuilt" a whole wooden shed in the playground. "I hammered, I sawed, I measured," Juma reported.

our little Yalie

As I've mentioned before, we're teaching Juma how to read and write. Here's a picture of some of his first "sounds." Ssss, mmmm, aaaa, rrrrr, and t (entirely coincidental that these sounds spell "smart").

fine motor skills

Juma's growing up. Check out a picture he brought home from school the other day: his first drawing of a person.

Sarah: Wow, Juma! You drew this? It has eyes and a nose and a mouth!
Juma: Yeah, and a head and skin. And legs.

what are they teaching in school these days?

Juma was playing with his "pretend friends" and he threw a karate kick and said "Haiyah!" When I told him I learned karate when I was a kid, he denied what he was doing was karate.

Sarah: What are you doing then?
Juma: My pretend friends are police and they're trying to take me to jail. So I kicked them.
Sarah: trying to hide my shock Oh, did you do something bad?
Juma: No.
Sarah: Did they think you did something bad?
Juma: No.
Sarah: Then why are they taking you to jail?
Juma: Because I'm a rock star.

sick...again

Juma is sick once again. Some sort of cold or something. Eight children from his school stayed home sick yesterday. A cough keeps him (and Justin, mostly) up at night, and a mild fever keeps him from wanting to play much during the day.

The missed-school days and the waking up at night couldn't have come at a worse time: finals week. But the semseter will all be over for me by 11am tomorrow. Hallelujah.

Then I'll finally have some time to make some Christmas toffee and write some Christmas cards before heading out to the (relatively) warm weather of California.

But for now, it's back to studying.

parent-teacher conference

We attended our very first parent-teacher conference as parents. (I always thought I'd be a little bit older when that happened.) Juma is doing well in preschool. He doesn't get in fights or get bullied, he plays well with other kids and enjoys the activities. Only problem is that he's just so darn shy. (Gee, I wonder where he gets that from? Double whammy.)

He talks to the other kids just fine; it's talking to the teachers that gives him lockjaw. It wouldn't be a problem, really, if it didn't interfere with communicating needs and problems--going to the bathroom, help opening up his string cheese--but it does. (Again, sound familiar?)

But he is overcoming his determination to not talk to the teachers. He even tracks his progress at home with us. "I talked to Miss Reeny today!" or "I wasn't shy to the teachers today."

All-in-all, school had been really good to him. He's a really fun kid to have around.

I think we'll keep him.

October

Happy birthday to Dad Wilson and Anna this month!

Juma's been learning all sorts of stuff in school. Stuff like "That's not fair!" and "What the heck?!" And more conventional school-oriented terms like "cubby," "activity," "circle time," and "playground." He also has picked up some songs we've never heard before, like, "Johnny hammers with one hammer" and "Did you feed my horse? -Yes, ma'am."

He's also built more confidence, been sillier and happier, and has developed more social interaction skills. It's pretty amazing to see him develop and grow up (all of which would also be happening without school, of course, but it's fun to see him pick up on things that we never taught him).

cut

Juma fell at school today and got a nasty cut on his forehead. I took him to the emergency room and they glued it together quite nicely. (In the picture, he's trying to pretend to cry for effect.) The cut is about an inch long, but he's doing just fine.

On a completely unrelated note, I went to my first scuba-diving class yesterday. Two hours of class work and another two hours in the pool left me completely exhausted. Can't wait to get that little card that says I can dive in Zanzibar!

school update

Juma did better on his second day of school. He cried for only a couple minutes, and didn't have an accident in his pants this time.

His feelings are a bit back-and-forth about it. He especially enjoys having a lunch box, a basketball-shaped ice pack, and a nalgene bottle for his milk. It makes him feel like a big boy to carry a lunch box around (see picture below). He's also happy about riding the bike down to school (he sits on the back of one of our bikes in a child seat), but when it's time to say goodbye to Mama or Baba, school is suddenly too scary. And I don't blame him; we did leave him with almost complete strangers on the first day. (We had visited the school before.)

Maybe tomorrow's school day will warm him up to it--they're having pizza for lunch. After that, Juma will have a week-and-a-half off, then start up 5-day school.

Juma's first day of school

Here are some cute pictures of Juma's first day of school.



We took Juma to his first day of preschool this morning. He's never been in formal childcare or school before, so it was an adjustment.


He was excited to go, but he cried for about ten minutes after we left. Watching a man prune the bushes out the window somehow distracted him enough to stop cyring, and he was fine the rest of the morning.



When we picked him after lunch, he smiled shyly, but happily, and gave me a big hug.



He had wet his pants and hadn't told anyone, but it was a good morning other than that. He goes back on Wednesday.