Graduation! My baby is growing up!

Friday, June 21, 2013 0 comments
On Thursday, June 20th, L'Escoleta celebrated the graduation of the two classes of older kids, the giraffes and the elephants; Eric is a Giraffe.  In September he will already be starting regular school here, even though he won't even be 3 yet!  It's a bit bittersweet to see him graduate from his nursery school; especially with everything happening there this year.

Just as Eric is finishing up the school year, the school is being emptied because the new company will be taking over in a week.  So, it's not just the end of a school year for Eric, but it is the end of an era.  It is the end of his days playing there, the end of my days helping out there, and it is the end of my friends working there.  Seeing as I was already spending time there before I got pregnant, it will be hard to say goodbye to the school.  We have all enjoyed spending time there, playing with the kids, and seeing a lot of our own kids grow up there.
In preparation for the graduation, the kids have been practicing dancing to several songs.  Eric, though, refused to rehearse along with the other kids.  They were usually practicing when I dropped Eric off in the morning, and one day, he was so adamant about not dancing with the other kids, that I ended up dropping him off in another class with the younger kids!  It's just like when we try to sing along to a song on the radio, and Eric screams out "Baila No!!!"  We try to tell him that we aren't dancing, and that we are only singing, but he doesn't care.  He doesn't want to have anything to do with any of it.
For the graduation day, school got out early, at 1PM.  Since I lose about an hour daily between dropping him off and picking him up, it didn't really seem worth it for me to bring him for a half day.  So, he stayed home to play with me.  I noticed that he wouldn't stop shoving his hand in his mouth, and the skin around his mouth was scabbed up again, so I decided to look to see if his back molars were finally coming in.  I had just checked on Monday, and I noticed that they were close, but that they hadn't broken through his gums.  On Thursday, the day of graduation, though, both lower back molars were already half way through!!
I was starting to understand why he was behaving a bit worse this week.  Even at school they said he was being more stubborn.  He had also had several accidents both at school and at home after a couple of weeks of successfully asking to go pee pee in the potty and staying mostly dry.  He has otherwise been pretty much pee pee potty trained.  Poo poo, however, is another story.
Having him home with me, it was much easier to read his actions, and I could tell when it was time for poo poo.  He still had never done any poo poo's sitting on the toilet yet, nor does he demand to go.  What he does do, though, which alerts me to what might be coming, is say that he needs to go pee pee, but then when he gets there doesn't have any.
Over the course of a little over half an hour, we kept going back to the toilet, and I would sit him on it with toys and books to keep him occupied.  The first few times he got sick of being there, and so I let him get up and run around again, only to try a few minutes later.  After a few unsuccessful tries, we got lucky, and there was poo poo in the potty for the very first time!!   Yay, Eric!!
I decided to get him ready for graduation by playing one of his songs for him.  I found it on youtube, and he loved the video and wanted to keep watching it over and over and over again!!  Unfortunately, I didn't know their dance, so I couldn't practice with him at home, but I did get him used to listening to it.
After his nap, I got him dressed for his graduation.  I was tempted to put a diaper on him to avoid having problems during the performance, but instead brought several changes of clothes, and kept my fingers crossed.  We picked Tita up on the way to the school, and she took him from me right from the car.  We were worried that if he were to go inside with me, that he would start crying if I left or tried to drop him off with them later on.  So, I went in by myself, and used the time to say hi to one of the secretaries at the UNED, where the graduation was held.
By the time I got to where the celebration was being held, I had to sit pretty far back.  I chose seats that were near an aisle so that I could get up and try to get better pictures and video.  I saved seats for Mauri and his mom, who were going to be coming later on, but because of his work, they arrived pretty late into the ceremony.
Eric actually surprised me.  I didn't expect him to dance with the other kids, but I also didn't expect him to ham it up on stage and clap and go along with it all.  I imagined him crying and fussing and yelling for his mommy.  So, I was quite happy to see that he even seemed to be enjoying himself.
Eric with his teacher
Eric didn't do what he was supposed to do.  He didn't follow the motions, he didn't wear his sunglasses, he didn't put on his graduation cap when he went to pick up his diploma, but he didn't cry either.  Not only that, but he didn't pee in his pants!  Later on, I noticed in my video, that he seems to be holding in some pee pee at the very beginning of it all.  He still made it through all of the dancing and through the list of all of the kids picking up their diplomas.  It wasn't until afterwards that he told mommy, "Pee pee potty!!"  With all of the people between us and the bathrooms, I figured there was no way that we were going to make it there in time, but Eric pleasantly surprised mommy one more time!!
The part where the kids were being handed their diplomas was also quite comical.  Eric would periodically peek out between the curtains and run out when it was other kids' turns.  Then, when it was his turn, he ran out the other side, ran across the stage, and pretty much kept doing whatever he wanted to do.  The other kids all obediently wore their caps and sat down holding their diplomas and class photos.  Eric, on the other hand, just kept running back and forth from one side of the stage to the other, backstage, onstage, backstage... in front of the other kids picking up their diplomas... wherever he wanted to run.  Good thing that there was only one Eric in the classes, or the festival would have been utter chaos.
I guess that part of it is his personality, and part of it has to do with his birthday.  There are kids in the classes that turned 3 in January or February.  Eric, though, is still 2 and will be 2 until the end of September.  For kids as young as these, those few months make a huge difference!!  Eric is now the age that the older kids were during the Christmas festival, and, looking back, very few kids were able to do any dancing back then!  So, I guess I shouldn't feel to bad about it.
You shouldn't feel too bad about missing it, either, because I got most of it on video!!
Here's the HD youtube video:

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