Considering that Wessy is about to go to full-time preschool, I thought I'd write down a few things that may be helpful to the preschool about him and how to interpret his behavior.
Dear Preschool,
First of all, thanks so much for accepting my child into your school. You had us at "breakfast, lunch and snack," but you really sealed the deal with "help with potty training." Wesley is very much looking forward to starting full-time preschool.
There are some things you should know first. One, when we said on the application that he was potty-trained, well, that was just a generalization. Do we put normal underpants on him and pretend he is potty-trained despite the fact that this results in four or five clothing changes a day? Yes, yes we do. Does he tell us three out of four times before he craps his pants? Yes, yes he does. Did he meticulously pull his pants and underpants down and discreetly perch in the corner of the sandbox to take a dump at Dolores Park the other day? No comment. I will leave it up to you whether you think this counts as potty-trained. Pro tip: His way of telling us he has to go potty is to yell MY STOMACH HURTS (ME DUELE LA PANZA) in Spanish. Considering your teachers are primarily Mandarin-speaking, maybe one of your earlier priorities could be to teach him a Chinese equivalent?
Speaking of Chinese immersion...well, we are having a little problem with our English immersion right now. Basically, Wesley doesn't want to live in an Anglophone household. If we (his parents) are speaking to each other in English, he will chide us loudly, "NO HABLEN!," or, sometimes more gently, "HABLEN ESPANYOL!" If you try to read him a book in English, he will decline to listen,
demanding either a switch to laborious simultaneous translation or to a book written in Spanish. If you explain that a particular book was written in English and that it loses a significant amount of context and/or narrative value if translated (an excellent example would be anything by Dr. Seuss), he will not take no for an answer and will prefer a shitty Spanish translation to a melodious English narrative.
Another thing that you should know is that he asks a lot of questions. I know what you are going to say--curiosity is natural at this age and it's wonderful that he has such an inquiring mind. We think it's wonderful too, to a point. Most days we are past that point by 8am. He will ask you anything, at any time. If you tell him he can have something in the future, the immediate follow up question is "DONDE ESTA EL FUTURO?," which, if you think about it, is a very interesting concept. If you tell him it's late and it's time to sleep, he will ask how to "take away the late," which again, is an interesting concept but a tough one to explain to his satisfaction.
He will ask where his "teeth card" (business card with a picture of a lovely veneered smile) that the dentist gave him two weeks ago is now, despite the fact that he has not seen or inquired after it since you recycled it 13 days ago. Today he asked if he could tell the childcare workers at the Y that he had a light fixture in his bedroom that was still in a box (true). If you see a picture of an aquarium in a book, he will ask what fish eat, where their mothers are, why isn't there coral in that aquarium, and where are the bubbles, and can he have some fish and can we go buy them now, and can their name be PLANTS? Basically he devotes this level of scrutiny to every thing in his life.
As intense as he is about asking questions, he is twice as intense about touching things. This is very unfortunate in San Francisco, a city full of dog shit and discarded needles. I would appreciate you keeping a very good eye on him. This morning, he did manage to snake his hand underneath the plastic cover of a fire alarm and was extremely close to pulling the lever before I removed him from the vicinity. Other recent exciting things to touch include toilet seats, plungers, any floor, anything really. Doesn't matter much as long as he can touch it and then put his fingers into his mouth. That second part is key. So, mainly, the most important thing would be to just make sure he washes his hands before he eats.
At the moment, he is supposed to be napping. I can tell he is not by the periodic crashing sounds and the dog-like yipping emanating from his room. I'm crouching in the corner of the kitchen at the opposite side of the house because if I move he will be able to sense my presence and will start yelling that the sun has come up. He knows that he can wear us down with the screaming, because it just isn't humanly possible to do anything else while listening to something so shrill and grating. I hope your tolerance for it exceeds mine.
Anyway, thanks again for taking him and also for having full day availability. We will be there at 7am on the opening day with bells on! Can't wait!
