Weeks of September 8-22, 2025

As you can tell, I’m having trouble getting to these weekly posts right now. I’m going to have to change the timing, I think. Sundays have been filled with shopping, cleaning, and meal prep. I’m writing this post while our breakfast for the week finishes cooking.

The transition to Charlie’s new school (mixed age 4 and 5 pre-K) has been challenging for all three of us. For Charlie, it is much more structured than the daycare he went to before this, with entirely new teachers and classmates. For us, it is the new schedule and longer drive. We are still figuring out what our work schedules look like now that he is back home by 3pm instead of 5pm. The past couple of weeks have been a lot of time shifting. We’re going to continue experimenting with different schedules and perhaps hiring a sitter for a couple hours twice a week until we find something sustainable. This week’s experiment: I’ll start earlier and shift my workouts to after work instead of the morning. We’ll see how it goes.

We’ve been completely focused on Charlie and work during the week, then catching our breath a bit and marathoning chores to get ready for the next week during the weekends. I have very few photos on my camera roll from the last couple weeks. Just trying to keep things going.

Despite the challenges, we are feeling great about the school Charlie is going to. They have a big emphasis on building community, so we’ve gone to a playground meetup, a curriculum night for the parents, and a Friday afternoon assembly. His teachers have been so kind and are dedicated to helping each child learn and grow individually. Even though Charlie is the youngest in his mixed age class, we’ve seen him grow and open up as the month progressed. He confidently walks in the front door of the school on his own and has told us a few Spanish words he’s learned. He’s learning to name his emotions with The Mood Meter. There’s still a few challenges I won’t write about here, but after meeting with his teachers, I’m feeling confident that they (and Amanda and I) will help our little guy work through it.

Amanda and I went to the school’s Friday afternoon assembly this week because Charlie’s class was one of the ones presenting. I love that they have kids as young as 4 standing up and presenting or performing in front of large groups regularly. By the time they are teens, it will feel like second nature for them.

One Friday after school this month I took Charlie to get ice cream and ride his bike along the river immediately after school. It was just what we both needed.

In general, afternoons have been a lot of playing outside and unstructured play time (magnatiles, sandbox, legos, mud kitchen, water hose, walks in the woods.) One afternoon we even got to play with some dry ice that came with something we ordered.

I’m feeling really proud of this kid this weekend. Saturday we showed up to the first swim class of this season, only to learn that the skill group times had shifted and we weren’t notified. Instead of the parents going in the water with the kids, the kids in this skill group did the class solo. Charlie and I talked about it and decided to give it a try, with me on standby ready to jump in the pool with him if needed, but he did great by himself, and was patient hanging on the edge when it wasn’t his turn. Towards the end of the class, he was comfortable enough that he started bobbing himself up and down while he waited. I left the class dry. Next week I’ll be in the bleachers.

I’m certain that being challenged regularly at the new school had something to do with his confidence in being able to do swim class alone. At the last session in the spring, there is no way he would have tried doing it himself. He is growing physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Saturday night Charlie and I camped out in a tent in our backyard. We made hotdogs for dinner, s’mores for dessert, then read a few books in the tent and went to sleep. While we were making s’mores in the chiminea on the porch, an owl was hooting in our neighbors’ tree, so Charlie started hooting back. They answered each others’ calls a few times! It was magical.

We stayed out in the tent the entire night. Charlie wasn’t scared at all. He woke me up gently at 5:30am to tell me that he “had a BIG dream!” (all about truck chases, fire extinguishers, and rockets blasting off), then we listened to some Daniel Tiger stories on his Yoto and played with some toy cars until the sun came up.

The good stuff.