2003-11-08 - 3:32 p.m.

Why are kid's birthday parties so exhausting? Perhaps it would be bit easier if I didn't have a 20 pound one-year-old to lug around while trying to keep tabs on my 3.5 year old. Then again, maybe it would be worse if they were both mobile. In any even, we just returned from 3 hours of 5-year-old birthday party and I have to say I could really use a nap. I've put both of the kids in their room, but so far neither one is sleeping. That's okay, as long as I get a little break. I should have made Frank go with me, but I didn't, and there were plenty of other families there, daddy's included. Next time for sure, he'll be going.

Anyway, the big key for me for this party was to observe Nicolas with other children. See, his daycare right now is really irritating me. I picked him up Friday and again heard that he was "hitting everyone" but because this teacher's English skills are lacking, I'm really not sure how to take that. I do know that I got a note telling me that I needed to send a sippy cup to school for him now, because, according to the note, "he's spilling his milk every day at lunch".

This pissed me off. See, I'm already not very happy with this teacher, even though I've never met her. Now Frank is insistent on having a little chat with her to find out the scoop. Nicolas has been in this center since he was 2 years old, and even during that time I never had to send a sippy cup with him. It's ridiculous that I need to send one for my almost-four-year-old child. If he's spilling his drink every day, there must be some reason for it, and I think they need to work on helping him through it instead of insisting that he take a step backwards. What's worse, is that even though this is a long standard note they send, with areas to check off as to how he's eating and sleeping, this lazy teacher only wrote this comment and didn't bother to check anything else. Perhaps he's not been sleeping there? I'm sure he hasn't eaten every day because some days I put his lunch in the frig only to find he's got an entire sandwich from the day before in there. These are all reasons to be concerned. Yet, nobody has bothered to share information with us about this. I know they are busy, and don't have time to fill out these notes every day, but to only fill them out whenever she has bad comments about him (which is more often than not) is just a little too much. He's been at this school for almost two years now, and we never had these kind of complaints before, so something must be going on that we aren't being made aware of from them.

This party today was a prime example. Nicolas was with a large group of children today in close quarters. Several times a child took a toy from him. Not ONCE did he hit anybody or push anybody or anything of the sort. So what's going on at this school of his? I've seen him interact with children a lot lately, and I've never seen the violence that they seem to speak about yet. It's just baffling to me, and I do believe it now requires a conference. Yes, he's only 3.5 now, but if there are issues that are disturbing him, then we want to get to the bottom of them now before they affect him in the long run. On Monday, I'll be setting something up with the school for sure.

Ok, well my back is killing me from sitting here, so I'm going to lay down for a bit. Who knows when Frank will be home from helping his dad with his basement, but I know right now I need seafood. I'm kinda in a Red Lobster mood, though I hate to deal with the crowds there. Perhaps we'll just order some seafood from somewhere around here and bring it home. Steamed shrimp would be just great. Mmmm...my mouth is watering already. Time for a nap first!