At Billygoats alone

Friday was the first time Jack stayed at Billygoats while Nana went home. Leaving him was easy because he was busy swinging with Angelica showing him new toy tools. Angelica said that Jack missed me three times: when he wanted to go home; when he hit his head on the table; and another time.

At 12:10, I was crouched down behind a Eucalyptus tree sighting Jack sitting next to Angelica at the picnic table and wearing gloves. He seemed happy enough. He and the two little girls wandered around a bit. About 12:17, Fiona's mother showed up, so I pushed the stroller around to the playground arriving about 12:20. Jack was glad to see me and Angelica said to give him a hug to release his tension. I sat down with Jack in my lap and gave him a bottle of juice.

Jack explained that the gloves are so he won't get poop on his hands when his diaper is changed. Angelica seemed to think the day went well.

Jack was eager to get home to resume play at his construction site in his bedroom, but we stopped to watch two working men in front of the school. They were trying to fix the meter that registers the amount of water used by the fire sprinklers. One man was lying on the sidewalk with his head down in a hole and the other man was pumping water out of the hole with what looked like a large bicycle pump. They were very welcoming as we watched. Occasionally I would ask Jack if he was ready to go home and he would say no. Finally we thanked the men for letting us watch and they said "goodbye Nana."

We played in the living room and Jack's bedroom the rest of the afternoon. Jack only went into the kitchen once and briefly up to his dirt pile to get one of his machines. It was apparently important to stay in his construction area. I kept encouraging a nap, but that didn't happen until 5:30, five minutes before Alex showed up. I know Jack regretted sleeping right through Papa's visit.

Billygoats On-Duty Parent Day

Jack and I had a big day today--I was the on-duty parent for Billygoats and Stacy furnished all the food. Greg, Jack, and I took the cooler to the park in Jack's green wagon. Jack rode in the wagon on the way to the park and later walked home next to it.

Jack had fun, but Billygoats is stressful for him. When he gets involved with something, he does not want to stop.

Today, he had a game he invented with a cardboard toilet paper roll; it was a "soccer ball thrower." At some point when Angelica wanted to move on to another activity, she took it away from Jack, triggering a lengthy crying jag. Finally Angelica gave Jack a "ticket" which he could give back to her after the hike to retrieve the soccer ball thrower. The ticket was a slip of paper
with a drawing of a happy Jack and a toilet paper roll.

Other stresses included Fiona running up and pushing Jack away from a climbing structure and then basically fighting with him. Also, he had to share Nana with the other kids when she read a book to them. And of course, Jack gets tired of snack and lunch times and wants to run off onto the field. Angelica is very understanding and she said Jack did great today.

Angelica is a genius in settling the problems little kids have. She has a system for every part of the day. I can see now how it will work with just one parent there. (Today was still a day when each kid had a parent present all day.) When the kids go to the bathroom, they all sit on the stairs near the bottom and the parent reads a book to them. Angelica takes one kid at a time into the bathroom.

Jack got to help me with the wagon when it was time to serve the snack. And he enjoyed running on the field, collecting leaves and sticks for a squirrel house, playing with water and sand. The kids and the parents loved Stacy's food. It almost all disappeared. The kids loved the eggs and turkey and muffins and the parents loved the muffins and the salad. At lunch, two of the mothers announced that they have just found out they are pregnant.

Jack is very concerned about the other kids. He called out to warn them about one of the wagons at the playground that he considers too tippy. After three and a half hours, all of us were beat. I pulled the wagon home with Jack walking beside me. He was very good about taking my hand when we crossed streets. The only hairy part was going down Elk, keeping the wagon from going too fast while holding Jack's hand.

When we got home, one of the neighborhood regulars insisted on taking the cooler up to the door for me while I put the wagon away and helped Jack up the steps. We took off our sandy shoes on the porch, got Jack some milk, read a book, and then Jack and I both took a nap on his cave bed. Jack slept for nearly three hours. When we went out on the front porch to put our shoes back on, we discussed the blue water tank on the distant hill. Jack wants Daddy to take him up to see it. Then we worked on the construction site in the living room until Jack wanted to play with Play Doh. Daddy found us in the kitchen smashing up the asphault (Play Doh) to recycle it. We'll need to make our own Play Doh as the commercial product is gradually sticking to our shoes, coating the kitchen floor as little orange crumbs, and otherwise magically disappearing.

Greg, Jack, and I went to the Chenery Park Cafe for dinner. Jack kept his hard hat on and sat in my lap most of the time while I had delicious salmon and Daddy had chicken. I'll sleep well tonight.

Notes on early September activities

Jack spends time every day inventing stories about his little PlayMobil working people who build towers and runways and roads. If we visit a job site he re-enacts the job as soon as we get home. Yesterday I showed him a poster in the rec center that shows the water and sewage pipes under the road in San Francisco. We've been watching a sewer renovation project on Chenery Street. Later, we studied a map of the park and Jack wanted to know where the sewer pipes were.

This week he has wanted to play with Playdough for hours every day. He makes a sewer pipe and a truck for his PlayMobil characters to drive. The truck lowers the sewer pipe into a ditch and then covers it up with gravel and tamps it down.

Jack is in a very winning romantic phase. He tells me several times a day that he loves Nana. I get nice hugs and kisses. When his parents are mentioned, he talks about how he loves Mommie or how he loves Daddy. I try to tell Jack that I love him whenever he is having a hard time or when I am changing a dirty diaper. I also say that I love Ripley when Ripley is naughty. I want Jack to know that love is not conditional on good behavior. We’ve had some biting incidents in the last two weeks, but I think we are over that. Jack was shocked when he saw the bite mark on my arm. He kept saying “put a bandage on it.” Jenny says there’s a book about biting at Bird and Becket and I may try to find that to read but not to buy.

We have had such a good time at the park lately, playing baseball on the diamond and walking through the canyon eating blackberries. Jack has also been loving the swings where he pretends he is an astronaut in the space shuttle. Jack and Emma have played together very nicely. It’s fun tohear Emma talking now. She insisted “jacket off” when she got too hot.

First Day of Billygoats!

Here are the Billygoats in mid-hike through Glen Canyon. After about an hour of free play in the sandpile, a snack, and playing with big balls on the field, Angelica led a hike back as far as the creek bed.

The Billygoats learned how to slide down a hill and climb back up using a bear walk. They debated where the creek water went. They thought about what the funny post with holes is. They learned that they need to come when Angelica sounds the bells and that they need to stay with the group.

Jack held hands with Ollie for part of the hike. Ollie likes to screech shrilly, so Jack also learned the screech. It was all a little confusing for Jack who is used to our own routine in the park. He asked Angelica to go to the blackberry patch. The group did make it to a plum tree, but blackberry picking was not on the agenda. He was also disappointed that he could not stay longer at "Emma's tree." And he very badly wanted to be on the other side of the log in this photo. He did just fine with most tasks and requests and later in the day, I asked him what he thought of the Billygoats. "It's fun," he said.

Nana was busy sizing up the other parents who will be helping Angelica throughout the year. I'm sure they will be fine, especially when they don't have other parents to distract them from watching the kids. This is going to be a transition for Nana as well as Jack.