Lucas Charles Crouse » November 2006 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Sat, Nov 18, 2006 10:28 PM
Amanda saw her first movie in a theater today.
We took the kids to see "Happy Feet".
Amanda did well for a 22 month old. She squirmed a bit in her seat so we moved to the very back and that was the place to be. She could climb around and not bother anyone behind her. The binky also helped keep chatter to a minimum. Lucas seemed to enjoy the show and the popcorn. He did forget to use his "library voice" a couple of times but other than that we all had a great time -- I should say that Phil did not care for the movie at all. I thought it was cute.
Lucas also got a quick visit with Santa who happened to be at the mall. He told Santa that he wanted a hyperjet for Christmas and we got to pay $14 for a picture.

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Sat, Nov 18, 2006 2:46 PM
The bullying continues.

Well, things have escalated and now Lucas has a nice set of bite marks on his arm from one of the little angels that attends his school. What are these nuns teaching my preschooler?
When I picked him up from school on Friday Sister Carole pointed to the top of Luc's shoulder and said Lucas told her another child bit him. There were no marks and I got the feeling she didn't really buy it. Lucas kept telling me his shoulder hurt but I checked and couldn't find anything.
Turns out Sister Carole pointed to the wrong arm and the totally wrong area.
When Phil was changing Luc into his jammies last night the bite marks were located near his tricep area on the right arm. I felt so bad. Should I send my not yet 4 year old to a school where he comes home injured? He cried and cried on Friday and said he didn't want to go back.
I spoke with his teacher on Wednesday about the other incidents but she is totally clueless.
Anyway, I'll post a picture of the mark. It was worse last night but I forgot to snap a pic then.
Pray that I can figure out what to do in this situation. I don't want to run away from a school just because Lucas is unhappy, but this is preschool and I don't want his first memories of school to be filled with fear.

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Tue, Nov 14, 2006 2:31 PM
Bullies!

I really didn't think I would have to deal with bullies when my kids were so young...
At Luc's former school there were kids who would occasionally push each other but this was usually over some toy or a spot on the jungle gym.
But there have been some recent incidents at Luc's current school with kids bullying for no aparent reason. I have witnessed this on a few occasions -- the bullying isn't always directed towards Lucas. As I was leaving Lucas yesterday I watched him from across the yard, as I often do. I love to just be a spectator and see how he plays when he doesn't know I'm watching. Well, yesterday this boy walks up to Lucas who was sitting on a tricycle and punches him. The bully's sidekick then goes up and says something to Lucas. At that point Lucas spotted me and I could see he was starting to cry. I walked over there and reprimanded the two boys -- they just sort of shrugged at me and proceeded to hit Lucas' good mate, Kyle. I reprimanded them again and again they seemed to shrug me off. None of the other teachers noticed anything going on. Before I could really talk to the boys about it, Kyle shouted, "let's get out of here, Lucas" and they were off. The two other boys scattered. Amanda started crying so I didn't get a chance to go over and point out the situation to the teachers in the yard.
Luc's teacher wasn't there at the time, but I'm going to speak with her about it tomorrow.
Lucas has been coming home lately and complaining about the older kids bullying him -- making fun of his clothes, calling him stinky and pushing and hitting him. The teachers don't seem to notice too much or take any action besides directing the offender to something else.
I haven't been sure how to teach Lucas to handle the situation. My first instinct is to tell him to push back or just tell the bully to shut his face!!! But, I know that's not the "Christian" thing to do, right? I'm going to try and come up with some snappy comebacks (not put-downs) that he can use in these situations and perhaps do some roleplaying with him. I want school to be fun and not scary for him.
The thing that strikes me is that the increase in bullying has also coincided with Lucas beginning to have potty accidents at school. I now think that is related. He never had an accident since he was potty trained at 2.5 until about 2 months ago -- the start of the new school year and new kids.

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Tue, Nov 7, 2006 3:05 PM
Took the kids to vote!

I didn't want to wait until Phil got home tonight and be stuck with the masses of people just off work, so I packed the kids into the stroller and walked down to my polling place. I wrote down my choices (no I'm not going to tell you) and even made fake ballots for the kids -- they had lots of different stickers and they were to circle their favorites.
They did great! There were tables set up right behind the booths and the kids sat there and only caused minor disruptions to my thought processes.
I tried explaining to Lucas the reason that we vote, but I don't think he can quite grasp the idea of government (I don't always either). But it can't hurt to have them see that I take an interest in politics.

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