At 1:15 PM, Dave showed up at the back door of my office, just as a client would. “How was your day? Good to see you. What lovely weather we’re having,” I quipped, leading him down the hallway and up the stairs as if we hadn’t seen each other just hours before. The reason for his pop-in was a Zoom conference call to discuss Evelyn with her teachers, Miss Avery and Miss Veronica.
I like them both. One loud and boisterous, the other timid and quiet. Tag-teaming, they told us about Evelyn’s fondness for Maxwell and her running with the older kids—kids who will go into kindergarten next year, where she’ll return for another year of preschool. They forget, they told us, she’s only four sometimes, as her height and skill sets are advanced. Things like telling her to take the glue and paper to do x, y, z with—she is capable of remembering two or three-step prompts and doing them without supervision.
I saw this today with her wanting to mow the lawn but needing to go inside to get the key to the shed and the battery, both in different and somewhat complex locations. But she did it.
Her only growth area is her voice—standing up for herself or not following the crowd. Both teachers assured us this is a normal behavior for her age but that they encourage her to say, “No” or “Stop that,” if she’s around others not doing the right thing. At home, we’ve seen this as well. Like when a bucket of marbles, like 300 total, covered the surface of the basement floor, and she said “Ethan did it first and then I did it,” but not understanding that his doing it did not absolve her of responsibility. So later when we played with Little People characters together, I created a similar scene where her character needed a timeout. “But he did it first, that’s not right.” So she really doesn’t get it, but we’re on it. And that’s all we can do.
Also with her teachers, we talked about the move to Georgia and the uncertainty of whether we’ll put her in preschool again or take a year off before kindergarten. I’m of two minds. On the one hand, it’d be nice to make friends in the community outside of our family, but also it could be cool for our first year to be low-key, have fewer responsibilities, and soak in the time we have together. We will see.
Well, she’s finally asleep I see. After hours of playground time, one in Ocean Shores and one next to our cabin in Copalis, she had an abundance of slides, swings, sandbox, and soccer. She made friends with a boy named Jack, whose Mom I bonded with. Not only did I use their cabin for a restroom break, but they visited our cabin and we are planning to go to the Easter egg hunt six minutes down the road tomorrow.
Well, I’ve already written far more than I anticipated, so that’s wonderful. I hope you had a superb day. Take care. Love, Jaclynn.
Going On 40 