King of the World.

Not only has Nate conquered, and taken names, for that matter, at preschool, the kid is on top of the world these days. (I don't mean that he's punched or kicked or physically hurt anyone by saying conquer either!). We all had some dark times at the beginning of this month. But, a few weeks later and it's all rainbows and unicorns around here.

On Wednesday it was Nate's turn for the coveted 3 Special Things bag. This is a ratty, old, yellow string backpack in which each kid gets a turn to take home and stuff with 3 of their favorite things and bring to school for sharing time. Nate's items didn't seem all too exciting or interesting, in my opinion. But, nevertheless, I restrained myself and let him take what he had chosen: a UM football ticket, a Geotrax toy airplane and two metal cars that he calls his derby cars. I realize the math doesn't work out here. 3 things, right? The derby cars counted as one. Nate explained to me with conviction that you can't have a derby with only car. I couldn't argue this point and they all fit in the bag. At pick up that afternoon, the teacher told me Nate had a really great day and all of the kids really enjoyed his derby cars. I would have loved to have been there to see him stand in front of the class and give his colorful description of a derby and follow with the demonstration of crashing the cars together.

Then, yesterday morning Nate had what I would call "the best drop off ever." He was beaming the sort of contagious beam we had seen the morning of his first day (prior to the screaming and crying, of course). He was still high from all of the attention he had received from his derby car demonstration. We both stepped inside the door and two little kids cheered, "Nate's here." The teacher smiled and said, "Hi, Nate." And, my boy, well, he grinned from ear to ear and bellowed "Good morning" to everyone in the room as he casually tossed his lunchbox in the bin. I know I tend to dramatize some things, but this I am not. He owns DK! And, his mama and dad are so stinkin' proud!

Then. Yep, there's more! He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels this week too!

It was really in a matter of moments. A couple of clear and direct instructions and he was off flying! He surprised himself. Please note the incredibly awesome Michigan football bike helmet that Tyler painted for him, too!

We all know the Baughman noggin tends to be on the large side, but this week they are all quite swollen with pride! What's next? Tessa will land a commercial or get an Ivy League scholarship, at this rate. Or better yet, retire her diapers completely!

New Appreciation.

I've been unemployed for 5 days. Not in a deadbeat way. More of a 'moving on up to the east side' way. I do have another job awaiting. Anyways, it's been some of the busiest, tiresome, and most expensive 5 days. This was supposed to be my time. My break. A vacation.

I left my job last Thursday nearly all smiles. Then...

The weekend started off with a going away party with my Oakwood peeps in Dearborn. Love 'em. Will miss 'em. Drank about 57 Oberons and probably gained a similar 57 lbs in weight too. Those are some heavy, but good, beers. Saturday, my sister, Lola, and niece, Paige, came to visit. We tailgated early and baked in the hot sun for another Michigan football victory. Go Blue! After some quick Michigan paraphernalia shopping, we all swiftly drove back to Ohio for another niece, Molly's 3rd birthday party. More beers and pizza and cake, too. Sunday was a Neuenschwander family reunion in Wauseon. It's interesting to see a bunch of people that you don't really know hardly at all, but all the while look strangely similar to your dad and uncles. Monday I had to go shopping for a washing machine. Ours was condemned by the repairman on the previous Friday. Yesterday I started a disastrous DIY home improvement project (more on that later). Today I got a potentially-cancerous mole punched out of my thigh and then spent the morning in a laundromat. Anyways, this is where my story starts.

Laundromats. There is something romantic about them on TV or in the movies. Not so much in real life. I do not consider myself to be particularly materialistic, but I do appreciate some of the finer luxuries in life. Having your very own washing machine is one of those luxuries.

Our washing machine went on the fritz almost two weeks ago. We had to wait to have the repairman come over to check it out when someone would be available during normal business hours. So, the first day of my unemployment was spent waiting for the repairman during the assigned 4hr window only to have him take one glance at the machine within his very first minute in my house to say it was toast. Needless to say, laundry has been piling up in the household. Well, a little bit of comparison shopping and awaiting delivery has cost me a couple more days. The good news WAS that the washing machine is supposed to be delivered on Thursday. However, this morning, Troy tells me he's in his last pair of clean johns. Great. I really thought I could get through all of his without having to scrape up a gazillion quarters and lug all of our dirty clothes to the laundromat.

I will spare you many of the sordid details ( 'cause Troy says I need to work on brevity...he didn't use that word, fyi.). Suffice it to say, that I only did what needed to be done. A couple loads of skivvies. I didn't even dry them there. And, when I left, I wanted to announce to all of the diet-soda-drinking, Cheeto-eating, customers in the place that they were more than welcome to come over to my house to take a shower and use my new washing machine that arrives tomorrow. Troy has 'rinsed and dried' undies for tomorrow. The rest of the dirty clothes got lugged home. I placed the unused quarters back in Nate's piggy bank. I may even kiss the washing machine delivery man on the mouth tomorrow. That is the only thing romantic about any of this.

Like Johnson & Johnson say, 'No More Tears.'

So, I'm not lacking for words, but it is evident that I am lacking for time! I have only good news to report regarding Nate's school days. We only had tears on Monday of this week and it's been smooth sailing since.

If you haven't already heard me say it, Troy is super-dad. He does all the of the getting the kids ready in the mornings and the dropping off and picking up, among a laundry list of other things (fyi - he doesn't do the laundry, but somehow there seems to be a balance in our family). I often appear to be the absent mother, but it's only because of my long work hours, I promise. Anyways, Troy was not coping well with Nate's initial disdain for school. He was sinking in to a depression thinking our kid was a loner and we were terrible parents. I was excited to hear Nate talking about a couple of kids that he seemed to be playing with at school. Nate was naming names and giving descriptions of their activities including playing a modified version of tag with a girl! Troy, being the skeptic, was determined to confirm that these kids actually existed. To this, I asked, "so if they don't exist, Troy, what are we going to do? Talk to their imaginary parents?" Needless to say, there has been some tension around here. However, I did check the class list. And, lo and behold, they are real little kids that do exist! Nate has new friends! yeehaw. Three actually. Whew.

Tuesday morning's drop off involved quite a bit of pregame bribery. We had plans to go to the Tigers game that evening, so Nate was going to be picked up earlier than usual. The combination of looking forward to seeing Paws, the Tigers mascot, and not having to be jailed at this new school for which he often and openly spoke of his dislike, was enough to get him through the day. The baseball paraphernalia he had gathered while at the game seemed to work as motivation to get him to school the next day for show & tell. Yeah! And, well, that's that. He now marches in to that school, drops of his totebag and lunchbox in the appropriate places and joins in the fun. Troy picked him up yesterday and had to almost forcibly drag him out of the sandbox where he was actually playing with other kids! So, thank you to all who sent words of encouragement and support. It looks like we won't have a DK dropout on our hands, after all.

And, speaking of Paws and the Tigers. We are big Tigers fans. We had fantastic seats on Tuesday evening, great weather too. And despite the fact that they were getting slaughtered by the Royals and it was a school night, we stuck it out until the 7th inning so we could sing and see Paws. You can see our awesome view of Paws dancing on the dugout during the 7th inning stretch. However, Paws seems to be much like Santa and the Easter Bunny to our kids. They like to adore him from afar. After he finished dancing and before he returned to his cage, Paws stopped for a family snapshot. If there were video, you could also hear Tessa screaming "no like Paws" over and over. This year's Christmas card, you think?

Another blog is born.

Well, we all know that I'm not lacking for words. So, what better time to start blogging than this monumental time in the Baughman family: Nate's debut in school. He started Developmental Kindergarten (otherwise known as DK) this week. Yes, DK is a fancy term for preschool. I was tired of the hairy-eyeball I've gotten when people presumably asked me what program he's in and succumbed to the pressures of "kindergarten isn't what is used to be." Heaven forbid he start kindergarten, is behind, gets labeled the slow kid and, well, it could be a crazy downward spiral from there for which I am not prepared to be responsible simply because I was annoyed with the inconvenience and aghast at the expense of it all. So, he's enrolled tuition paid, name tag on his cubby. And, honestly, much to our surprise, he is NOT a fan.


The first week went a little like this...Excitement abounded with taking a backpack, packing a lunch in the ever-so-awesome Spiderman lunchbox, and having to do a bonafide homework assigment (an 'about me' collage). It was a pitiful rainy day. With raincoats on, we loaded up, backpack delicately stuffed with the prized collage and lunchbag in tow. I snapped the appropriate pictures for memorable documentation (see above). Nate was beaming. Troy and I were beaming because our little man was going to school and we for surely had made the right decision despite the inconvenience and cost. Tessa was clueless and seemed to be content with her usual schedule of events. We arrived in the parking lot and Nate was panic stricken. He babbled about wanting to go to Brooke's house, tossed the lunchbag aside, tore the backpack off his back and stood his ground that he was not going in to that building despite all the enticement of nice teachers, new friends and new toys. We left him with his tear-soaked face pressed against the glass. The teacher told us he sat by the door for a large majority of the day. He wouldn't participate in the large group activity...for which the purpose is to meet all of your new friends the teacher told him...Nate said he would meet them tomorrow. He's quick.

In his description of the day, Nate did disclose that he sat on the bench by the door a lot, but that he was also the model student. He bragged that his collage was so good the teacher had asked him to do another one (not true). He was proud he didn't get in trouble for anything and listed all of the negative behaviors that required the teacher's discipline (true, and we were shocked.) I have to admit, I was worried that he would be the kid biting, kicking, punching, not listening and talking about rear-ends and private parts. I was not worried about him being a loner. He has always demonstrated an initial shyness and reservation (and most of us know how he feels about fireworks), but he's almost always overcome with minimal persuasion and support.

The next day went a little better. He didn't cry, but didn't participate throughout the day and still only knew one other girl's name in the class. The third day, all out brawl. The fit started in the van, before the parking lot this time. It took sheer force by Troy to get him in the door. Lo and behold another kid was 'having a bad drop off,' as the teacher's call it, so Nate was up for the challenge of outdoing the screams and cries of that boy. Troy was depressed all day at work and his concern was growing.

And, as if the social stress isn't enough. No one told us we had to do a full-body dowsing with antimicrobial soap to combat all the new germies! Thursday night there was little sleep in the household. Nate developed a terrible croupy-cough with stridor. He sounded like a crazy barking seal that was sucking air through a straw between barks. I was paranoid that his throat was closing, but being the medical professional-mom justified every reason why I didn't need to take him to the emergency department. He would awake every 20 minutes or so and ask me, "what's that noise?" and he was referring to the gasping he was doing to get air even while he slept! After a much-debated but urged-by-the-24hr-nurse-visit to the doctor and quick steriod-treatment, Nate was feeling great. However we had already called in his absence for school. We decided it was best that he not know that he was missing school and especially because he was sick. I know for a fact that he would be dramatizing the stomach flu or something of the like in the near future.

And, yes, I did put up a little bit of stink about whether or not Nate really needed the steroids or not seeing that he's only ever been to the doctor for a sick visit one other time when he had scarlet fever as a baby and then his testicle surgery. We've all breathed easily over the weekend. Even got a UM victory over the Irish! Go Blue.

So, we've survived bath time and a little talk about school again tomorrow. Troy and I are keeping our fingers crossed that tomorrow morning and the week to come will only get better. If not, we have some anti-depressants for ourselves and a plan for serious bribery.