following the lines

eliot started pre-k a few weeks ago and it is all about letters at home right now. he has his name down no problem, but that still leaves 21 others to work on. i am making a concerted effort to cut down the amount of time he spends watching tv or videos, although i will freely admit that with three children under five, pretty much the only way that i can make dinner is to put on little einsteins for the ten millionth time at five o'clock.

last year i reduced my schedule at work to 32 hours a week, which let me be home for a full day and let david have a full day out of the house. as his business is picking up momentum, we have switched things up a bit, and now i come home at two everyday except for wednesdays. thus giving david time in the office or time to run a group every day of the week. as it so happens, the girls take naps at two so it gives eliot and me some really good one on one time. most of that time was spent outside over the summer, but now there is a bit of a chill in the air.

we had a great time yesterday tracing out these letters, and it made me realize just how quickly time is passing. five is rapidly approaching and eliot is working out who he wants to be, and i think for david and me that means a whole new phase of parenting is on the horizon as well. scary. last night it was telling the truth. it started off with eliot not telling the truth about having eaten candy at school earlier that day (a whole other issue that i am trying to deal with). later david was making cookies and eliot got into the raw dough and flat out said he didnt even though there was evidence on his face. so we had to have that talk, you remember that talk? you know, the one about how telling the truth about something, even if it something you were not supposed to do is better than lying about it. i know i remember my parents giving me that talk. then we had the one about consequences, his being no warm cookie that evening, and how he already had plenty of sugar that day anyway. oy. that was one sad little boy.

i know this is a little incident, or the tip of the iceberg if you will. but i keep thinking to myself, the beginning is so so important. laying a good foundation now so that in the future there will be openness and honesty. whew. melissa you were right, this stuff of parenting, it tests your mettle. but in a good way. scary, but good.