Visitors from Up North

We haven't made our way to Bellingham in a while to visit Nanny and Papa, so they were nice enough to come down here and bring NuNu.


The kids usually display some special kind of sassiness reserved for embarrassing Mom in front of the grandparents, but they actually held it together until the end. We had lunch and cookies and no nap from Bitty Girl, and dressing up in scary skeleton costumes and reading books.

No, she's not actually reading yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if she does it young like Mama.


NuNu with her girls. (Evidently the 35-yr old girl needs a few more sit-ups) But enough about my spare tire--focus on the cute look Bitty Girl is giving NuNu.

NuNu discusses serious matters with Skeleton Man


But how scary can he be, when under the mask he looks like this?


It wasn't until they were getting into the car to leave that The Boy decided he MUST get his soccer uniform on RIGHT. THAT. MINUTE and hurry up Mommy and help with my shin guards, and then when I said he could kick the ball for 5 minutes, he had to collapse on the grass in a sobbing heap. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that one.

So far so good

We made it through another week of kindergarten! The Boy has surprised us and done really well, settling in with no major drama. He likes his teacher, is making friends in his class, and seems to be enjoying himself.
Have I mentioned that he's exhausted? All this fun, plus a lot of soccer practice and games, takes a lot out of you.

And that's him in the pile on the left below. He runs so hard and concentrates so hard during soccer, but it's hysterical to watch them play. And heartbreaking - last week he scored an "own goal," which happens when you kick it accidentally in YOUR TEAM'S OWN GOAL!!! oops.
No one really seemed to care, luckily, including The Boy. Must figure out how to post videos on the blog, for some real entertainment.

Bitty Girl, on the other hand, is showing signs of the honeymoon being over. She, too, is exhausted. And Tuesday she CRIED and CRIED when I dropped her off at daycare. She did fine, but both days when I picked her up, she ran to me crying out of sheer relief, like "Oh thank god you came back!" She's either just tired or 2 yrs old or getting some new molars, or all of the above. Because she is Grouchy McGrouchypants lately, not napping well, very fussy and wants mama a lot. In other words, not what we're used to from Bitty Girl.

We're giving ourselves a few weeks for adjustment. But we've had beautiful weather, good health so far (knock on all available wood, please), and great teachers, so we're thankful.

Reason #1 to always carry my camera

So kindergarten is going well, 3 days down and 1 to go this week. He's tired, having strange sassy meltdowns each night, but that's what we expected.

Today was my day at home, in which Bitty Girl decided not.to.take.a.nap. Grrrrr.

But making the best of it, we left early to pick up The Boy at school. School gets out at 2:30 and I walked into the class at 2:15, thinking they'd need some help getting packed up and lined up. But they are already kindergarten experts and they were packed up, sitting on the front carpet singing songs with the teacher.

The following is true. I am not making it up, and there were witnesses. I only wish I had my camera.

Teacher: Does anyone know any other songs? (The Boy raises his hand, but then says, "I forgot" when she calls on him.
They sing another song, like Row, Row, Row your Boat.
Teacher: Anyone else? Yes (to The Boy)
The Boy: Ten Little Honeybees
Teacher: I don't think I know that one. Do you want to come up here and teach it to the class?

Ok, I don't know if she always says this, and encourages them to come up, or if she figured there was no way in hell he was going to come up there.

Can you guess what happened next? That's right, he walked up next to her, so all the kids are sitting in front of him on the carpet.
The Boy: (VERBATIM) Okay everyone, hold up your hands like this. (demonstrates by holding out his hands with all fingers spread, and sings) Ten little honeybees, making honey, one flew out to get some nectar. How many were left?
Class: NINE!!
The Boy: Nine little honeybees making honey, one flew out to get some nectar...

You get the picture. The whole song... I have never EVER heard him sing this song - he says he learned it at preschool, but I partly think he made it up. But the whole class counted down with him, and it conveniently used up all the time they had left while waiting for school to get out.

Somehow the teacher held it together and didn't fall down laughing. I was laughing inside, but trying to look presentable on the outside. That's our Boy, former karaoke star! Maybe we could hire him out to entertain the preschoolers.

A Day of Firsts

Whew. We made it.
The First First Day of School Picture:


But Bitty Girl really wanted to show you how she felt about going to daycare, I mean school...



Other firsts included:
First kindergarten lineup (this is where Mama almost started crying, but The Boy was BRAVE and didn't even cry, just gave this scared/stoic/pathetic puppy look)

(that's his backpack straps you can see, not some weird two-tone blue shirt)

Bitty Girl's first day of daycare, including first NAP at daycare and peeing on the potty, to be followed by pooping on the potty at home. That is a moment worth celebrating! Daycare is going to get us past those diapers. Wonder if they can do anything about her attitude?

It was also the first day of not getting off the bus stop at the right stop for after school daycare. Lucky his crazy Mama was there to run (Yes, I RAN) down the block to the next stop to loudly inform the driver that he had two kindergartners on the bus who should have gotten off at the last stop and one of them was my son! I'm sure they'll have that slight problem of letting the bus go too quickly and not checking their lists closely enough fixed by tomorrow! Too bad I'm tricking them and he won't be on the bus tomorrow...

We had the expected meltdown before dinner, where he loudly informed us that he didn't WANT to have chosen the special dinner last night, he wanted to choose it TONIGHT (as dinner was already on the table) and he WANTED CHICKEN NUGGETS! It was his first day of kindergarten, after all. After some stomping around and a time out in his room, I got it out of him... "I CAN'T READ, and my teacher told us to sit quietly and read a book!"

Oh.

Commence one discussion about how you LEARN to read in kindergarten and the teacher meant just look at a book like he always does, and how he knows all the letters and the sounds and he knows some words already and he's just about ready to read. After he made me say the whole alphabet so he could say each letter sound (he's just like his daddy sometimes in the determined department), he calmed down.

Overall, it was better than I expected. Think good thoughts for day 2!

Ready or not....

As if the fact that my baby is going to kindergarten isn't enough, I'm supposed to pack an emergency kit with a comfort letter from home!! School supplies I can do. But this letter is my stumbling block. On top of the nostalgic waves of sadness and the worry that he'll be exhausted or annoying or bored or not have any friends, now I have to worry about a natural disaster and include just the right words from Mom and Dad IN CASE HE'S STUCK AT SCHOOL FOR THREE DAYS eating peanut butter crackers!!?!?!!!

(Deep breath)

Ok, I'll write the darn letter. I appreciate the school's emergency preparedness plan, and attention to detail. I just wish my heart was so prepared.

But we had a good, intentionally low-key weekend, trying to get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour for the last few days.

I had hopes for a big "Night Before Kindergarten" special dinner, and it wasn't what I envisioned, but it happened. He got the red plate

We made special peanut-butter brownies for dessert,

and he got to choose a special dinner. Considering he's Mr. Three-item Menu, I figured it would be easy-pizza or chicken nuggets. But a morning trip to Trader Joe's and a sample of ground-turkey sloppy joes with bbq sauce on flatbread, and he had a new favorite. It was messy, but they enjoyed it. The pictures don't do it justice. And he ate broccoli, so who's complaining?

Maybe it's my photography.

Have I mentioned that Bitty Girl likes brownies? I think this is her "Whassup, Dog?" pose?

Also, in true second baby style, she is tagging along on the first day stuff tomorrow, with her first day of daycare. I am surprisingly not stressed about that part. Hopefully that's because she's more adaptable and I'm less neurotic this time around?

Or maybe all my neurotic is used up on the Kindergarten beginning.

I just hope I don't sob uncontrollably at the door of his classroom tomorrow. The way I did myself in kindergarten.....