...with a little help from my friends

hi. I actually wrote this all out over a week ago and only just realized that it didn't get published; it got lost in translation. Here is my second attempt:

As you may or may not know, I have been having quite a rough time since moving to Pittsburgh. I knew I was going to miss my Memphis friends dearly, but I didn't quite realize how desperately! And then they go and do something wonderful that, even though it's not the same as being together, helps me to get by.

For my birthday (good old 38 now), I received the following:

From my dear friends, Keli and Curt: a Cracker Barrel gift card so that I can treat myself to my favorite, rainbow trout. Even though Keli swears she won't eat trout unless she has fished it out of the river herself, she tolerates my lack of a discerning palate in the trout department. I love it that you guys thought of me, now I just wish I had you here to go with me!

My darling kate: a giant tub of cheesy poofs as a reminder of one of my favorite girls nights ever - I do believe it was sort of for Katie's bday and the movie was the hilariously delightful Bride and Prejudice! Thank you for bringing back such a fond memory and for being there to have made it happen to begin with. Also, a true friend knows and understands the hidden desires of our hearts - the Star Wars activity pack (for me, not Josh) has been lots of fun for everyone! Grandma Katie spent the better part of an afternoon on the lenticular puzzle.

And, oh, my sweet, sweet Katie: movie popcorn and Reese's pieces - two delicious flavors that combine to make THE best movie watching snack on the earth. Thank you for being my true BNF and for going with me to see all the movies that Joey and Drew had no interest in. I cannot express all the gratitude in my heart for the dear friendship that we share. But mostly, thank you for being the Reece's pieces to my popcorn! 

I am so lucky to have such amazing friends in my life - I cannot tell you how much it helped my little heart to have you guys remind of that. I sure do love you!

p.s. I'm sure you'd all like to see some pictures of josh, so here a few

Hanging with these wild and crazy guys at the aviary (it's actually a male and female - and she's telling Josh to back off).

There is a cool hiking trail up the road - this is Buttermilk Falls. 

The nerf gun wall in his Star Wars bedroom. It's still a work in progress - we hadn't unpacked all the guns yet when this photo was taken.

Look how long those legs are getting!

We have been having lots of fun at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum - here he is drying off after playing in the water room. We will definitely be taking friends there when they visit!

Camping with Grandma Katie and his cousins - this is one happy boy! 

He does miss his Memphis friends/cousins tho and brings them up all the time. One day we were sitting on the sofa and he stopped what he was doing (probably watching a minecraft video) and asked, "do you remember baby Freddy?" I replied that I did and he just sighed and said, "I love him."

Me too, little man, me too. We love all of our dear Memphis friends - I wish I weren't so lousy at keeping in touch. 

So far in September...

Here are some of the things Josh has been up to this month:

Painting at the easel - using the force!

Drawing pictures in his journal.

Checking out Big Red (the class beta fish).

Learning about gears.

Making "my owns body"

Picking a monkey to draw for his journal.

Reading a book on Tumblebooks before nap time. The class favorite is called Fifty Below Zero.

Making circle people

Josh's response at our dinner time reflection of our favorite part of the day has been "playing with blocks at big school" pretty much every day.

This was during PE - Josh is on the far side holding onto a yellow section. 

This is an early math activity that he loved so much. Usually when I pick him up, he is still groggy from his nap and ready to go home. The day they had this activity, he woke up excitedly and went straight to the table to do it one more time before leaving.

They were studying the letter O and made these octopus pictures in Mrs. Curry's art class. Josh's was the only one with all the legs spaced all the way around... Except his does have 9 legs. 

Driving home from school one day he said, "I have a heart and lungs, you know."

Making his own face

Recess activities! Usually they play on their own Pre-K only play ground. But there isn't a ton of shade, so when it's really hot they play next to the school where there is a lot more shade.

They planted wheat grass in eggshells. Josh was SO excited to see that the grass sprouted over the weekend! They drew faces on the shells and the grass grew up like hair. Super cute!

Writing his name. He has been able to write Jj, Oo, and H fairly well for some time, but he has gotten really good at Ss, and h now too!

Painting apples with apples.

Still life drawing of apples for his journal.

Making their own applesauce - Josh loved it!

They had an apple taste test - Josh liked red best, but the golden delicious won overall favorite.

So that's what has been happening. I have taken on several roles as a volunteer at his school (to give me an excuse to stay close by) and at first Josh would get upset if he saw me there doing something other than being with him. But, he has finally gotten used to seeing me around. 

One day this week after his nap, he saw me hanging artwork in the hall outside his classroom and just smiled and gave me a thumbs up. He happily went back to playing until I was ready to come get him. It definitely makes my heart happy to know he is happy when he is away from me. 

Today we are driving to Indiana to celebrate his Uncle Hersel's 40th birthday. He has been SO excited about this trip, but when he realized he was missing big school today he was sad and said, "but I just love big school!"

<3

Two weeks down.

This week at Big School:

Josh drew a self-portrait while observing himself in the mirror. I think (of course) that his was one of the best in his class! His teachers put copies up on the wall outside the classroom. I will try and take a picture tomorrow so you can see that I am not completely biased about that. 

EDIT: Here is his finished portrait

And these are some of the others:

They made a class graph of everyone's names organized by the number of letters in each.

They read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It was one of Josh's very first favorites (thanks, Grandma Katie). Then they experimented with colors and patterns by making caterpillar pictures.

They learned about the number zero.

One definition of zero

Is the mathematical value

Between positive and negative values

They Might Be Giants taught me that.

They made an Age Collage. Josh chose three popsicle sticks and three blue feathers. Blue is his favorite color, by the way. And this was also picture day! Can't wait to see how they turn out.

In his Mandarin class they learned some new songs and I was really amazed to hear him randomly sing them to himself throughout the week! I convinced him to let me take a short video. I will try to link it. http://youtu.be/EWAJe_yPe5o

The newsletter this week said that the results of the previous years Mandarin comprehension exams showed that all 20 of the pre-k students not only passed - a passing grade is 120, they all scored above 166 and two students even achieved perfect scores! My suspicion is they were already Mandarin speakers though, but I am planning to ask. 

Josh also got to meet the Librarian and was excited to point her out to me the next day when we saw her in the hall. I don't know her name though, because he called her "the library guy," but she remembered his name, which I found impressive.

Friday was the first home football game of the year, so all the students and teachers wore their school tee shirts. I really wanted to take him to the football game, but kickoff was at 7, and we have been trying to stick to the schedule as much as possible.

Here are a few shots of his classmates, he is in the background of each of these:

Violet (she has a twin brother in the other class and on older brother in kindergarten this year).

Lucas

Tessa and Violet. Josh is in the time-out chair. When I asked him why he said that he was playing too rough, I am so not surprised.

Tessa again, she has the first class birthday and turns 4 this week! Josh's will be the next birthday we celebrate in the classroom.

Another photo of Laney.

Josh and Lucas on the slide.

He loves his big school! At dinner, we have a family tradition that we each get to say what our favorite part of the day was. Tonight Josh said his favorite part of today was big school... It's Sunday. I am so glad he is thinking happy thoughts about his days at school. On Friday, I said that I was going to meet him for lunch and bring him home to take his nap. He immediately protested and said that he wanted to stay at big school the whole day!  

I guess all that time worrying that he wouldn't handle a full time program was not necessary. That is a wonderful thing!

Bonus: 

For those of you who made it through that entire post, this is a clip of Josh singing his favorite new song... http://youtu.be/T0KqBpGeJzA