Wow! This week has flown by! Tomorrow is Friday and rather than wait until the weekend when I will also have a birthday party to blog about, I figured I may as well get this post published.
One of the best things about having this blog is that I get to write about all the exciting things that happen to the boys. I hope that one day when they can read, they will be interested in how their childhood was, and also get a little of my perspective too. I tend to write about all their antics on my other blog, Life’s Ups and Downs…and My Place in It All, so I hope they end up reading both at some point. This place is used as our Family album so first days of Kindergarten should definitely go here.
Day 1:
Nicholas started school this past Monday on August 24. He had met his teacher last week and also we knew he would have a neighbor friend there. He was really timid about starting the first day of school. Eddie was post call that day, so he was able to be there both for drop off and for pick up. That was a real treat because Eddie is so often missing these moments. You could tell he was really excited to see his little man go to school.
We parked on a side street to the school because we walk him to his door. Both Nicholas and Christian had their backpacks (Christian was insistent and I didn’t want to fight…pick your battles, right?) We crossed the street and said hi to the crossing guard and then we walked into the school. Everything went fine. We went inside and had Nicholas drop off his backpack. He sat down and would not let me leave until A, his friend, showed up. I squatted at his table, which was filled with 3 other boys. No one was talking, so I figured I would introduce Nicholas to them. We met B, L and W. B is a big boy…he might be a little older than Nicholas, or maybe his parents are just tall. He was very friendly. L was also really nice. He smiled and said hi. W was really hard to understand because he was so nervous and quiet. He has a slight accent as well. I found out on Tuesday that he is most likely a Mennonite. That is a culture I had never heard of until I came here to this area. I believe they have a German background and many of them are bi-lingual or only speak their language. Ed tells me from his experience at the hospital that their language is not German because other doctors are unable to communicate with them. Anyway, their culture is radically different from ours, I suspect, and he seemed scared out of his mind. I just wanted to scoop him up and make his nervousness go away, but then he probably would have really been freaked out. Anyway, it was right about then when A got there and Nicholas was okay with me leaving. He seemed to have calmed a bit as well since he knew his tablemates’ names. In the meantime, while all of this was going on, Ed motioned to me that he and Christian were going into the hallway. Apparently Christian wanted to sit and color and participate too! He was getting mad because Ed had not let him do that (obviously). Christian was crying as he left with Ed, and in a couple of minutes after I got Nicholas settled, I went out and joined them. We left and Christian cried and whimpered the entire way back to the car. He was so disappointed that he didn’t get to go to school. Poor guy doesn’t understand it when I tell him he will start school in 2 weeks. In the afternoon when we picked up Nicholas, he said he liked his teacher “alright” and really enjoyed playing outside and pizza (that apparently had no cheese or anything on it according to him—I think their cheese doesn’t look like ours) and he had to be quiet at rest time, but he didn’t have to sleep.
Day 2:
This day I woke up to a cranky (tired?) boy who fought me on going to school. He wanted to be at home with Christian and I. When we dropped him off, he didn’t want me to leave, but eased into coloring pretty easily. I could not help but notice W and his mom come in. W’s eyes were full of tears. Poor guy. We got him to school only to pick him up and be told “Mommy, I had fun today. I won’t give you any more problems in the morning. I like school!” He also told me how they got to go to computers, but that they stood there and didn’t get to get on them yet. Christian, on the other hand, was still upset when I made him leave in the morning, and still insisted on wearing his backpack, although this day I asked him to leave it in the car. Poor guy asked me about “Bubba” several times throughout the day and got mad when he couldn’t stay and color again. We colored after working out that morning.
Day 3: As promised, Nicholas was up and running this morning. He did everything I asked with no problems. He went to school and reported to me after school that he had made 3 new friends. They are J (a cute little blonde girl), L (the same L from his table the first day) and T (another little boy). T apparently had told his Mom that Nicholas was his new best friend (too cute) but that he didn’t know Nicholas’s name—just that it started with an N. His mother had T point Nicholas out and she introduced herself to me. Nicholas also informed me he got to go to the computer lab, but that he had to just stand there again(I guess they are not putting them on computers yet), and he also went to music where he got to see his keyboard he will learn on (a new program this year—the kids all got keyboards to learn the scales and hopefully play some songs). Unfortunately he did not get to play the keyboard that day either.
Day 4: Another good day! He says he saw one of his old classmates from pre-K, but that she is not in his class. He was excited about that. He has had Apple stamps everyday this week so far. Tomorrow they get to celebrate July and August birthdays with cake and ice cream in the cafeteria at lunch. He’s excited about eating in the cafeteria again. I told him he could eat there twice a week. $1.75 a day is a little expensive when we have our pantry stocked at home. He seems happy with this.
Nicholas is into his “cool dude” poses…he does this in front of the mirror and says, “I look good!” LOL!!! His first day Tee-Shirt is Super Mario Brothers. He loved it and it goes with his Nintendo DS.
Christian on his brother’s first day of school…he really thought it was his first day too. It is not getting through that Nicholas’s first day of school and Nicholas’s birthday party are not also his. He wants to share everything…poor guy. He’s only doing what his mommy and daddy preach all the time, “Share, Share, Share!”
Brothers! They love each other so much!
Nicholas’s teacher, Mrs. W. She is really nice and has been teaching this grade for a number of years. Excuse the way I look…that is me, too early in the morning and ready to go workout. No makeup.
Mr. Shyguy.
