Monday, May 11, 2009

A positive playgroup

I was cursing to myself as we pulled out of the driveway. I thought we were doing ok on time but I managed to squeak us out the door by 9:23am and it does NOT take 7 minutes to get to the clinic. I left a message at the daycare to say I'd be a little late, which we were. I heard that Ronin cried at the beginning, but he got better and was following the other little boys around today. There was an outspoken boy named Kenneth there who I hope didn't bully Ronin much. Ronin actually swiped a potato chip out of Kenneth's bag when I was writing a check, but I didn't see any adverse reaction to it.

We arrived at the playgroup and I got Nikko to play with some blocks before it was circle time. Audrey was parked in her car seat near the closeted wall and she was very, very good the entire time (except at the end when naptime crankiness was creeping up). I sat with Nikko in front of the mirror for circle time and for once he managed to stay there for the entire circle time (was it 10 minutes?). The mirror helped because he enjoyed looking at himself and peered at his surroundings via mirror. He smiled, put his hands up during the Wiggles song, and even clapped his hands to the music when I was beating on his chest. I gave him long strokes on his arms, pulling him back when he wanted to wander but turning his focus to the mirror so that he wouldn't run away until it was time. When Shirley gave him a choice of hard hat or cowboy hat I was certain he wouldn't participate but he took the cowboy hat and put it on my head. In return I put it on his head and it didn't stay long there. After circle time was playtime and he got involved with an airplane and a little of the bean box. He was getting antsy for snack time but we had to do a craft first. We sat with everyone else to paint a butterfly but then Nikko got hooked on a paintbrush. Finally circle time came and he got Cheetos to munch. One of the little boys, Michael, was aging out so his parents brought some sugar cookies frosted with sprinkles. Nikko ate each sprinkle and wouldn't let go of the lump of cookie left in his hands until we were back home at lunch. We left after parachute and good bye song time, then went to pick up Ronin. I debated whether or not to go to Costco right after playgroup but decided to go home and feed the brood first, let them get through nap time, and make our Costco outing part of the late afternoon. Probably was a good choice to delay the outing. Lunch was executed on time, but Ronin was really acting out during lunch, being very impatient with me. I ended up having a screaming match and shredding my voice. I sat on a stool in the kitchen, sobbing and wondering why I let myself get worked up to be so impatient. A voice told me that I probably had pent-up stress from yesterday, to take a deep breath and hit the reset button. I don't need a Staples EASY button, I need one of life's RESET buttons. Hmmmm. Sounds like a good status.....
**pause to update Facebook**

After my meltdown, the afternoon progressed and after naps & a brief snack time I packed up the kids to go to Costco. We managed. When we got back I had the boys run around the driveway for a bit before heading indoors. The rest of the night was fine, Nikko didn't crash more than usual. He is really getting fond of looking at himself in mirrors. I have to see if they sell kid-friendly mirrors at Home Depot or Menards. Buying one online means shelling out more than a few bucks, I'm finding.

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