Seven

Seven years ago today, I was lying in a hospital bed, water broken but still on bedrest, waiting and waiting, and having no real idea that in just a few short hours, I would meet the most amazing creature who would change my life forever.

I’m having a hard time accepting seven. I read back on my “Happy 6th birthday” post, and evidently I have an annual “hard time accepting the birthday” thing. Although reading the Happy 5th Birthday post showed me we've beaten the Dec 12 curse! But he’s so BIG this year, and doing so many big things. The last year has included: Finishing kindergarten and learning to read, finally losing two teeth this summer, riding a bike without training wheels, really mastering swimming, playing a second year of t-ball and soccer, starting 1st grade and taking taekwondo. He’s taking it all in stride, and while he still doesn’t roll smoothly into new things, it’s definitely getting better.

Starting first grade was so much easier than kindergarten, after the initial transition of a new teacher and not having all his friends in his class. He knew where to go and what the school routine was like, what recess and lunch were like, the office staff (and yes, he’s visited them a few times this year already!). And he can read—oh, can he read! It just clicked at the end of the school year and now he’s reading everything. Street signs (a la NuNu), the sports page, the directions on his homework which he then does independently, Audrey’s books, my email and Facebook (eek!). He reads silently to himself sometimes, and I just stare at him in amazement! He loves math too, and while he’s still far too busy to sit down and write much, the fine motor part of writing is much easier now.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s that he’s rocketing past me and away from me in so many ways, and that’s the part that’s hard. He tells me “no kisses” when I take him to school, and seriously rolled his eyes at me one day when he saw me peeking in his classroom window. I’m sure his thought bubble said, “OMG my mom is so weird. Look at her out there looking at me. Go away, mom!”

The other day I said something sappy like, “Do you know what I was doing seven years ago today?” and he actually let me start telling him the story of being on bedrest and my water breaking and going into the hospital. Then in the middle of the story, he interrupted me to ask if I knew the score of the Philadelphia game. Hmmmph.

Example #1 of ways he’s way past me: Sports. The boy is turning into a sports mini-encyclopedia, just like his daddy. He is constantly spouting off stats, wanting to know which team is ranked in which place in the top 25, who won the game, who’s the best player, who’s the worst team in each league, and he knows the players’ names and numbers. And while he’s still a fair-weather fan who likes to root for the team with a winning season, I feel a deep love of the Huskies coming on, just like his daddy.
Example #2: Taekwondo. We started a class at the YMCA, and he loves it. I was overwhelmed just watching, but he’s clicked with it and really learned the moves. Up until this point, I could follow along with his soccer and baseball, but now, he’s beyond me. It’s a different world, with “yes ma’am” and “no sir” to the instructors, although we could use a little more yes ma’am at home, that’s for sure. But it’s something about the white uniform and the serious concentration and the way he has just learned by watching (the “fake it ‘til you make it” instruction is given a lot in class) and not by ME SHOWING HIM. Pat has gone with him to class a lot, and helped him with some of the moves, but really, he’s just a student in a class learning from the instructor. And that’s such a big kid thing.

He is an amazing big brother. His little sister adores him, and with good reason. He plays along with her bossy little games, watches her preschool cartoons, and sometimes with a wink and a whisper from me, will let her think she’s winning. He is so proud to play the “big kid.” His class had a Thanksgiving feast, and he let her come sit in his lap while the class was watching a video—later he told me he was kind of embarrassed, but I saw how proud he was. Of course they wrestle and fight and tease, but they also snuggle and play and laugh. Lots of laughing around here—usually about poop or other bodily functions or something silly that involves throwing a ball inside way too hard.

Seven. He has so much ahead of him, and I’m so proud of the boy he’s becoming. I just can’t quite figure out how he got from there

and there

to here.

Happy Birthday, Big Seven.

Like sands through the hourglass

Who are these big kids and what have they done with my babies?

Bitty Girl got a haircut and suddenly she's not so bitty.

(and who looks just a wee bit like her big brother?)

The Boy lost his first tooth

and then his second one a week later!

The Tooth Fairy is tired, and Mama isn't quite sure how we got here so fast.

Not to be outdone on the bike riding

A few days ago, she couldn't even turn the pedals herself.


She's a true Boss, even when riding her bike







and after a few turns, she refused all offers of help!

Way to go, Bitty Girl!!!

Milestone #2: CHECK!

Here's what The Boy crossed off the list today.

Don't mind the fact that this shot down our street, complete with VW Bus and unweeded house, looks like we live in Trashville. The other direction really does look nicer.

Dad got quite a workout as well. And because The Boy gets his dogged determination from his father, he rode this morning, this afternoon, and this evening.

I won't be surprised if he's poppin wheelies and riding one-handed by Monday.

More like the beginning

I witnessed something amazing tonight. When you wait for something for a long time and it happens gradually, right under your nose, sometimes you don't expect to be hit smack in the face with the wonder of it.

After a busy day, with The Boy's last day of--gulp--kindergarten, an early morning run to Fred Meyer for emergency rubber chickens for Pat's Field Day, coffee/cocoa with Bitty Girl, end-of-school lunch at McDonald's (I know, don't judge me, it's what he chose), and the afternoon at Field Day, I did not have high hopes for the evening. Pat was gone at his staff party, and somehow I managed to get dinner on the table and The Boy showered.

The promise of stories in Mommy's bed found them both under the covers with their book choices. I wish I had a picture - it was beautiful.
The Boy picked up a book from my nightstand and... (wait for it)


started to read it out loud. It was Little Oink, a gift from Auntie Emmy, and he's heard it a few times before. And I knew he could read. He's been reading for months, in bits and pieces, various words on the page or little beginning reader books from his book bag at school.

But as I stood across the room watching him, so confidently reading the words, stopping only occasionally to spell one for me to help him, I could see it happening, the neurons and synapses firing with connections. He didn't give up like he often does, and this book has words like "savored" and "relished". His eyes lit up when he started to spell "because" and then realized he knew it!

HE CAN READ!

I have so many fantastic memories of reading and stories and being curled up with a book. And while this enthusiastic bundle of boy has so many of my characteristics, I often find myself "not getting him." So watching him read a book with delight filled me with joy and familiarity and such a grown-up sense of connection.

Way to go, my boy. You have so much ahead of you, and we are excited to be along for the ride.
And while it may be more "Captain Underpants" and Batman comic books than Little House on the Prairie or Boxcar Children, the light in your eyes is something I understand.

Except when you're laughing at the poop jokes. That part, only your father understands. Thank goodness you have each other.

A milestone.....almost

When we take The Boy to school, we park and walk him right up to the classroom door, where the kids are waiting. We are not in the majority; many kids ride the bus or get dropped off on the sidewalk, so they walk in themselves. My opinion is that kindergarten is too young for this--their school is the "doors open right to the outside" kind with breezeways, not one building with classrooms inside. There's a lot that could happen between the car and the classroom door, and we often see that on our walks in.

Anyway, he has casually mentioned that some kids walk in by themselves, but hasn't expressed a desire to do it himself. He actually still holds my hand most of the time, which I keep waiting for him to give up. But I have to admit I secretly love it, knowing that it won't last.

So as we're driving in this morning, he says that one of his friends comes for school breakfast and walks in by himself. I ask if he wants me to drop him off, because I can. (As my heart breaks a little, silently)
He says yes, and then asks if I can park and just walk him up to the sidewalk.
I agree.
We park and walk up to the sidewalk, where I kiss him goodbye and he starts to walk down the breezeway.
I resist the temptation to pull out my phone and take a picture of my little boy growing up.
I also resist the temptation to cry.

About 15 feet away, he turns around, crying.

Evidently he's not quite ready to walk in by himself either. Whew.
We dried tears and walked in together. He recovered just fine, and once again, I managed not to cry.

Sometimes you're ready to walk right up to that milestone, look it in the eye, and say, "Maybe next time."

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.....