One of the positive things about moving, in addition to the opportunity to be with friends and family more often, to have a sparkling clean house for a month and a half, and to finally realize we have WAY too much stuff, is that Matthew and Simon will be forced to take a semester or two off from school. School isn't working out so well for Simon these days. He seems happy to be there and he has clearly learned a lot - mostly Spanish, painting, and air-guitar. But we feel we are playing constant defense against his teachers reports that Simon is too aggressive and they don't have time to deal with the problems he creates. Now here is that part where we are completely honest and tell you that Simon is a really great kid. He is affectionate and playful and silly and very sweet and caring. Does he push other kids instead of asking for a turn or telling them that the object is his toy? Yes. And what do we expect the teachers to do about it? Walk him over to the corner, tell him that he is in a time out because pushing isn't nice, wait two minutes, then take him over to the offended child and ask him to apologize. Does this work? YES. Does making him eat lunch alone or asking him to show you his "nice hands" work? CLEARLY NOT. So we have come to an impasse. If Matthew didn't need to prepare for work we might just take Simon out of school all together. If they would give us our money back so we could hire a sitter for the next month, we'd try that too.

Yesterday both of us visited his school and observed his behavior with his teachers and with the other kids. We stopped him from pushing four times in one hour and observed how there is just too much going on for his teachers to notice any problems before they start. We watched Simon irritate his teachers by getting up after a couple of songs and dancing in the circle while most of the other children continued to sit around the circle to sing. We watched as they tried to get 14 or so two year olds in a line and how, after a few minutes of waiting, Simon became bored and ran off to play. We watched as he repeatedly asked for water from one teacher and she was too distracted to notice his quiet request for "water please."

We know there is nothing wrong with Simon's behavior that a little more attention wouldn't cure. So we won't be putting him in pre school right away once we return to Mountain View, and when we do, we'll find a school that understands that HE IS A TODDLER and should be encouraged to run and play and dance and sing - even when it isn't convenient.