Firsts for Chad

Soooo, Chad has been a busy little four-year old lately. First, he had his teeth checked out at the dentist for the very first time. This was supposed to have happened a year ago, but I screwed up my insurance during the open registration period in 2013 and we had to wait a year.
There were big signs all over the exam room that said, "No Photos!" and "No cell phones!" so I could not document this cuteness, and you'll just have to imagine how funny it looked to see a little Chad in the huge dentist chair, with big sunglasses on. It was a pediatric dentists, so there were cartoons painted on the walls and ScoobyDoo was playing on a TV during the exam. He was pronounced cavity-free, but we need to crack down on the tongue sucking, because prolonged tongue sucking can lead to all the upper teeth moving inwards and that will be fun dental work later on. (I always thought he was the only kid in the world to have a tongue sucking habit, but the dentist's son did it too!) After we had a talk about not sucking his tongue anymore, Chad said, "But when I'm tired, can I still sniff my blanket?" Ummm... yes?? I don't know what happens after we close his door at night, but it seems to involve tongue sucking and blanket sniffing.
The other fun thing Chad has been up to are swimming lessons! My pictures from his first lesson are crappy because parents aren't supposed to be near the pool during lessons (they actually encouraged us to leave the building completely and go to the Farmer's Market next door, but I was feeling too helicopter-y to do that on the first day) and my pics were taken by zooming way in with my phone.

Hanging out poolside in his little warm-up outfit.

One of instructors was moving him in the pool to the end of the group before they split into smaller groups.

The first day was assessment day, and kids broke off into groups of four with one instructor. The instructor would use noodles and this barbell looking floaty thing to explain what they were supposed to do, and then the four kids would take turns trying it out. Supposedly they will use this to group them into beginner or intermediate groups for the next five weeks, but everyone looked pretty much the same to me. I was just glad that Chad was willing to get into the water (one girl was not) and did not fall in (one boy did).

Taking his turn with the noodle

Waiting for his turn again

The last task was to kick with the barbell to where the teacher threw a floating ball.

The last Chad related tidbit is that I'm super proud of him for earning his anatomy toy!!

We found this toy at the Learning Express when we were looking for a birthday present for a friend. (Attention family members who may need gift ideas for Chad in the future: Chad wanted every toy in Learning Express!) We explained to Chad that his birthday wasn't until November, so he wasn't getting a present today, but after seeing how desperate he was for this squishy body, we cut a deal: if he can learn to always hold his silverware properly (thumb on top!) he could get the body. My first plan was that he had to be deemed "proficient" with his fork. (This way I could incorporate a vocabulary lesson into the exercise.) I would have been happy with two weeks straight of proper fork usage, but Andy proposed 30 days straight of all thumb on top. There were a couple of early relapses, but he got the hang of things, and around Day 27 I snuck out to get the body. Now we're getting anatomy lessons from him. His favorite thing to do is to use the plastic hemostats to pull the small intestines apart.

After he got the toy, he told me, "I had to wait 30 days because that's a long time. You can't just do three days, because that's just one, two three and it's over. You have to go for 30 days because that's harder." Such a good little goal setter!!!

Also, I gave him the marshmallow test and he correctly chose two marshmallows after Mommy took a shower. He is all set for success!