It’s been an interesting week.  I started back to school which was fun.  Except Wednesday morning.  That was not so fun.

We had snow forecasted for Wednesday.  But they didn’t forecast for much and they kept kind of changing when it was supposed to start.  I don’t think anyone anticipated rush hour to be the time it would begin.

So I had to be at school at 8am.  There was not much snow falling here when I left.  The Jeep is a real bear to get into four wheel drive.  I can not do it, and it takes David a little time.  So I was in a hurry, and we decided I’d be ok.

And I was – for awhile.  The snow wasn’t bad up where we lived, but the farther south I drove, the harder the snow began to fall.  It really started to come down and it was accumulating on the roads.

Traffic was terrible too.  Moving slow and so backed up.  I got to the part of the route where I climb some big ole hills.  The Jeep didn’t want to climb them.  It was terrible.  I was going forward very very very slowly because the Jeep couldn’t get traction.  At the same time, I was fishtailing around.  It’s a wonder that I didn’t hit anyone.  No one honked at me though!  However, they were probably thinking, “this person is in  a Jeep.  It clearly says 4×4 on the side.  What the heck?” (or possibly stronger language than heck.)

I was trying to stay calm.  I thought I would try to get the Jeep into four wheel drive.  At the same time, I was looking for the next opportunity to turn around and go back home.  I just was not going to make it.  There was a bigger hill coming.

I got the opportunity to turn into a neighborhood.  At the same time, I noticed that I’d gotten the Jeep into Part Time four wheel drive.  Now to me that has always sounded like “the Jeep adjusts as needed depending on conditions”.  I know that’s ridiculous, but that’s what I think of.  Wrong.  I called David and he told me that I could not go over 20 miles an hour or the “transmission would fall out of the Jeep onto the road”.  I guess that might have been an exaggeration, but I am very literal minded sometimes, and it’s an image I could not get out of my head.

However, now I could also, as David said, “Drive through a field”.  No more slipping and sliding and I made my way home – very slowly – on some bad roads.  But then as I approached home, the roads became merely wet.  However, I could not go over 20 miles an hour (there was no chance of me getting the Jeep back out of four wheel drive). So now I was the crazy driver in the right lane barely moving. People were passing me like crazy.  That was almost as bad as slipping and sliding.  No one honked, oh wait, I think one person did.  Oh well, they were entitled.

I finally made it home.  Jelly legs and all.  I recovered for a little while.  David put the Jeep into four wheel drive for me, and off I went.  This time it was much easier.  I had to cancel my first class, but I made it for the next two.

The moral to the story: If you have 4 wheel drive:  USE IT!

The other night we took Davey to a family night at his school.  Two people, who call themselves Playground Theatre, performed.  I wish I had video of Davey watching this.  They were really funny – with that humor that the little ones love.  Kind of slapstick and very silly.  Davey laughed and laughed and laughed.  He laughed from the top of his head to the tips of his toes.  He fell over laughing.  It was so fun to watch.

I’ve not been knitting too much this week.  I’m working on the hat that I want to finish.  I am going to get the opportunity to do another test knit for a book that will be coming out.  This project is going to be worsted weight mittens in stranded  colorwork or fair isle.  I am looking forward to starting those.

And finally.  I’ve had a cold for about a week.  It’s not been a horrible cold as far as colds go.  I thought it was going away, but then it came back with a vengeance.  Achy and a little fever.  Sometimes that means sinus infection but sometimes it’s just viral.  So anyway.  I’m ok.  David told Davey that I was a little sick and so he should help me today because David has class.  (That sounds funny.  He is a classy dude, but I meant that he had to go teach today!).

Davey is the best helper.  There are several rules he has told me that I should follow:

1.  Move slowly.  Take your time.

2.  Wash your hands a lot.

3.  Don’t touch rubber (I don’t understand this, but so far it has not been much of an issue.)

He just asked me if he could have some gummy bear fruit snack things.  He told me though that I can’t have any because, “Mommy, you are kind of sick.  You can’t have any gummies because you need to eat healthy things”.  He gave me one of his and said that was all I could have.

He brought me his bear Squeakie to keep me company.

He also brought me Smurfs.

I am in good hands.

Last night as we were getting Davey to sleep, he told us more about his first day of preschool.

At snack time, they had a paper cup of cheerios and a carton of milk.  Apparently Davey added the milk to the cheerios.  That would make sense if he had ever eaten cereal with milk, but he hasn’t and will not.  He said that he saw the “kindergarteners” doing it when he had visited the prior week.

He loved talking about the playground.

They played chase.  The person chasing them was a vampire.  “But it was not scary Mommy.  It was more of an exercise game.”

Then they chased a little boy.  (I am assuming (hoping) that this was a fun chase for the boy being chased.) He explained it in this way. “He runded and we runded, and he runded and we runded…it was a little awkward.”  Then he paused and grinned.

He broke his “stick”.  This is part of a flag system that they use to move from activity to activity.  He proceeded to flex his arms and show me how hard he’d “squeezed” it.  He said he didn’t know it would break that easily, but that they were going to make him a new one.  “Mommy, I saw a big bin of them on the shelf.”

He liked the area where they read books.  “There is a little sofa for kids.  We can sit by each other on the sofa and read books.”

He also explained that there were “red chairs and blue chairs.  The blue chairs were little for the kids.  The red chairs were big for the grown ups.  Even though red is not for girls, they still sat in them.”

I love getting his perspective.

Today was Davey’s first day of preschool.

He loved it.

The preschool called midmorning to say that he was having a “fantastic first day”.  Apparently he jumped right in there and wanted to participate in all the activities.

We received a daily activity report which told us all the things Davey and his class did today:

They read and talked about “The Little Red Hen”.  They also put on a puppet show.

They sorted pasta according to its size and shape.

They glued pasta to create an art project.

They moved their bodies like wiggly spaghetti while they danced (I guess you can guess the theme of the day.  They are talking about The Food Pyramid this week.  Today was Pasta day.)

They had a sensory table filled with cooked spaghetti.

They followed musical directions to the “Let’s Make a Pizza Song” (I’m not familiar with this tune).

They sorted foods into their proper spots on a computer game called “My Pyramid Blast off”.

Q is the letter of the week.

Davey ate lunch with them before he came home at 1pm.  He ate all of his cheese, most of his goldfish and some of his almond butter and jelly sandwich.  He wanted to save his gummy bears.  He drank some water and most of his juice.

Memorable Moment as written by his teacher:  “Davey had a great 1st day.  He made some new friends and had fun gluing noodles to his art!  He was so excited when a friend showed him his cool new ant farm.”

He can’t wait to go back.  Some of the kids stay all day and they were getting ready for naptime.  Davey was disappointed that he could not stay longer and have naptime with them.  Davey – seeking a nap.  That was a first for me.  “I’m tired Mommy!”

So glad I can blog and record his very first day of school!

Wee Tot.

Davey got a Lego set on New Year’s Day, and he and David had a great time putting it together.  Davey needed assistance building it,  but he did really well following the instructions with David.  And now he loves playing with it.

I see a lot of Legos in our future.  David loved them as a kid too so I think he likes building with them again as much as Davey does.  I like to build with them too.

On this day however, I was not part of the Lego building process.  That was ok.  I sat in the beanbag near them, and I knitted.

Yesterday, we painted.  Well, I helped pick out paint.  David did the painting with just a little help from Davey.

We had  two chocolate brown walls that we were not crazy about.

Davey wanted to help.  He kept a very close eye on Daddy to see just exactly how he was doing it.

Davey thought this was pretty neat.

There was some type of gravitational force which drew Davey and Koko toward the wet walls.  Koko had to go outside for awhile.  Davey ended up with a paint coated elbow.  He tried hard to stay away from the wall, but he had troubles judging distance.  It was also irresistible to him.  He wanted to “check to see if the paint was dry”!

Wall painting was a success, and we are happy with the colors we chose!