Interview/Conversation with the Pre-Kindergartener after Day 1

I sat in my car at noon and listened as the sounds of her class singing the goodbye song to each other wafted out her classroom door and then over across the lawn. Then the teacher came out with the kids who were headed home.  A.J. beamed when she saw me..  I signed her out and got her strapped into the car and then we headed home.

Me-  So.... how was it?

Her-  Uhhhh, good.  (Smiles)

Me-  Yeah?  What did you do?

Her-  Um.  I. Don't. Know.  (She's looking out the window and barely paying attention to me.

Me-  You don't know?  What did you do?  Did you play?

Her- Yeah....

Me- Did you read books?

Her- Yeah....

Me- Then tell me what you did!  Who'd you play with?  What did you do?

Her-  Can I have some gummy bears? (Whining voice now.)  I really want some gummy bears.  Why don't I ever get to eat gummy bears?

Me- What???  Tell me about your day please.  I want to know what you think about it.

Her-  It was good.  We plaaaayed---  We did some maaaaath---  We had a snaaaaack---.

Me- What did you have?

Her- Grapes and cheese.  I ate all my cheese.

Me- Really?  Good!  You don't normally like cheese.

Her- I know.

Me- So did you make any friends?

Her- I guess so.

Me- Like, who?  Did you learn any of your friends names?

Her- I played wiiiiith..... Amelia?

Me-  Oh.  Good job.


Big pause.  Mommy foolishly waits to see if she'll volunteer any information.


Me- Did you see Peter at all today?

Her- Yeah!  I sthaw him when we went to the gym!

Me- You went to the gym?  What did you do there?

Her-  Uhhh... we ran around and stuff.  Like we skipped and we....

Me- Oh!  So you had PE today.

Her- I guess so.

Me- (Remembering that she was the story teller today.)  Did you tell a story today?

Her- Yeah.

Me-  What story was it?

Her- The Kissing Hand.

Me-  What?  Oh, that's the story your teacher read?  Cool.  But did YOU tell a story today?

Her- Oh.  Yeah.

Me- And what was that about?

Her- How I used to go to St. Michael's.  Mom! My foot hurts.  These shoe laces are too tight!!!!
(Her brother ran over her bare foot with the plasma scooter yesterday and she has a big gash there.)



So.  Yeah.  That was all I could get from her.

And it was like pulling teeth.  Without pain killers.

But it's more than I ever got from Peter.

Also, in like another 3 weeks she'll likely randomly remember every detail of her first day and start telling me all about it then..... and none of us will have any idea what she is talking about.

And, apparently she tells her dance teacher all kinds of random things so maybe next week I'll ask her what she heard and then I bet I'll get a full report.  

Meet the Teacher and the First Day of School

So today was a very big day.  It was the first day of school.  And it's interesting, because this feels like it has been the very longest summer ever, even though, in some ways it was chopped short (by the move) and really, we started today, just ONE day earlier than we would have if we were still at our old school.

Weird.

Anyway, Peter and A.J. have been excited about attending the new school we chose for them pretty much since we visited it in the middle of last February.  It confused them quite a bit when most of the public schools in the area started about 3 weeks ago but they did not.  So by the time the day of our beginning of the year conferences arrived, last Friday, August 21, they were both bursting with excitement.  Seriously, our meetings were at 2:00 in the afternoon and A.J. asked me to put her uniform on basically right after breakfast.

I filled part of their wait time having them make their own beginning of school picture signs.  Hahah.

In case you can't quite decipher that, I made each of them one myself in my own (legible) print.

PS... why is he so TALL?  Those pants are size 7.  SEVENS!?!?!?  

Also, I seem to clearly(ish) remember taking the first on of these photos when he started preschool at three years old and his head definitely did not clear the door handle.  Although if you click over the pictures are at a different angle so maybe you can't tell.  Also, he was soooooo much chubbier and, just younger looking.  I mean, what happened to his pudgy cheeks?

Anyway, then it was A.J.'s turn:

Sorry to sound all, well, ridiculous and to be THAT mom, but, honestly now, isn't she just the cutest thing???

Then again if you click back to HER first day of preschool, she looks pretty much completely about 25 years older now than she did then as well.  Granted she was only two still.  And those pictures don't hit me quite as hard because I didn't take them.  I was busy having Lucy that morning, so I don't have those fuzzy emotional memories of taking those photos the same way as I do as all the other years.

Anyway, if you're interesting in continuing with the comparisons, HERE is Peter's first day of Kindergarten and HERE is A.J.'s first day of preschool, both last year.

Goodness.  I need to stop looking back and start looking forward because this is making me feel all.... mushy.

So.... then, of course, somebody ELSE, who wasn't actually starting school herself needed signs too, just, because she always needs to be included.

She decorated it herself.  :)

And then, because I was making so many signs anyway, I decided to have a bit of fun.

Hahahahaha.

Hahahahahahahhaah!!!  I find myself so funny.  

When we were finally done with the signs, they wanted to pose and I'm not even kidding, this is what they did.

I die.

I mean, reallly?!?!?  

We are so stinking blessed....

Though, I'm STILL not sure where all the blond hair came from.  At LEAST they all have my hazel/green eyes.

Right.  So, moving on then.  Since Friday we were only headed to school for a couple of 30 minute meetings with the kid's new teachers, naturally, Matt found himself on duty and unable to leave work. Therefore, Lucy went to work to hang out with her dad in his office so that I could actually have a chance at focusing on the older ones during their school visits.

Aw....

 Then Peter, A.J. and I were off to their school.  Everybody was weirdly excited and nervous.

The welcome sign on the gate shack helped.

We were fairly early for our meetings so we just sort of started wandering around but soon enough we stumbled on Peter's classroom.  His teachers had a free block so they asked us if we wanted to come in early.

Of course he had to give them their apples.  :)

Also, two full time fully credentialed teachers for 22 students?!  Nice.  We're really praying this set up will help Peter to focus and do his very best.

He found his desk.

One of his teachers showed him his supplies inside.

We also found his locker.  

Then we were off to A.J.'s pre-kindergarten room.  She only has 12 kids in her classroom, with 3 teachers.  Again, we're hoping this ratio will help her to be challenged and learn better social skills.

She had apples for her teachers too.  And the best part was she remembered them from her visit last winter so she really was excited to see them all again.

She's the lead teacher, even though I realize now I have NO idea what hers or any of their names are.

Peter and A.J. played on the playground outside while I met with her teachers and then I enjoyed finding her name around the room.

Apparently for the first day, A.J.'s job is to be the story teller.  How appropriate.

Her cubby.  The school's mascot, is cougars, if you were wondering about the paw prints.

Once the pre-conferences were done, we all headed over to the amphitheater assembly area to take a picture with the school's Compass.  In a few weeks there will be a House Sorting ceremony Peter will be sorted into one of the 4 houses (Spirituality, Excellence, Service or Responsibility) and this will become his Family Group for the remainder of his time at this school for any multi-grade level activities (chapel, field day, Christmas Caroling, etc.)  A.J. will get sorted when she is in Kindergarten, next year, the pre-k kids have a house all of their own.

Also, if you're wondering, yes, we absolutely do keep making Harry Potter jokes,
asking to see the sorting hat and making out bets as to whether or not Peter will end up in Slytherin.  

Once that was done, we headed back to get Lucy from her Dad.

The sweetness just never ends.

Yesterday (Monday) all the kids stayed home for about an hour in the morning with a neighbor so that Matt and I could attend a New Parent Orientation meeting.

And then that brings us to this morning.

The first day of school.

I'll admit it:  I was ridiculous and nervous about it last night and I barely slept.

If you're wondering, no I did not make the sign.  The school admissions office made the sign and lent them out to all the new kids' families and urged us to take lots of pictures and post them on Facebook and Instagram and everything.   Free advertising for them, I guess, but also just another example of the types of attention and details that I love about this school.  

This picture is 100% to show you their backpacks.  Peter's is Hot Wheels (which is weird because as a general rule we refer too all toy cars as Matchbox Cars around here for some reason, even though I'm sure we have lots of both.)  A.J.'s is a cat, wearing a bow and glasses eating and ice cream sundae.  It strikes me how she chose a backpack probably intended for girls 2-3 years older than she is, because, well, that is how she is about everything.

They fight all the time and yet....

 Also, there was this little Miss.

Still in her Paw Patrol tutu pajamas.

And sporting her Doc McStuffins backpack, even though she wasn't actually going anywhere...

 We made sure to get to school extra early for the first day so that we could park and walk the kids in.

Peter put his stuff in his locker.

And then we left him at his class.

In typical fashion he charged in without a thought otherwise, but I called him back for my hug. Perhaps it's that he wanted to skip the goodbye, but I suddenly found myself overcome with emotion. The tears welled up in my eyes as I crouched down and pulled my big boy close.  Down on my knees as I was, I found my first born son to actually be looking DOWN at me and as he pulled a way from hug and noticed my tears he said "Suck it up Mom.  I'll be fine."  And then he kissed me on the nose and went on in.

UGH.

Why did I cry?

I never cried before.  But this is a new school and a new year (and last year was not good) and I want so badly for him to do well, and I'm not going to be there on campus with him and the school day goes all the way until 3:15 and that is 45 minutes less time home with me in the afternoon each day!!!!

Also, if you're wondering, he's heard me tell him to suck it up a lot lately whenever he cries about something silly, like, you know, having to go inside for dinner.

I did my best to stop acting ridiculous and we headed back up the hill to A.J.'s class.

She didn't hug me goodbye either.  She just charged in and put her things up and went to find something to do while I signed her in.  There was only one other girl in there with her (which was hilarious because as the teachers reached out to shake Matt's hand and introduce themselves to him, the other little girl reached out her own tiny hand and introduced herself too.)  

The lead teacher handed me a little card she'd made with a picture she'd taken of A.J. last week and a poem, basically promising to love her as if she was her own.  

Darn it.  More tears.

Plus, with both older siblings safely in their classrooms, we were left with just this....

A very, very sad, very very lonely littlest sister desperate to have some place to go too.

I say this a lot, but parenting is HARD.

So now, I'm going to go practically smother my youngest with hugs and kisses and snuggles while she is still home with me all day every day, because it's still over 2 hours until I can pick up A.J. and 5 1/2 hours for Peter.....

Beach Day!!!!

You guys!!!

I bet you didn't even know how exciting it is, but with this post I will be ALL CAUGHT UP on the posts about stuff that happened awhile ago.  And school starts tomorrow so just in time.

Right. Moving on then. So remember when I mentioned that Matt and I took the scenic coastal route home from San Francisco?  No, well, you can click here to remind yourself if you would like.

So, almost immediately after that trip Matt and I began plotting and scheming about driving up to one of those middle of almost nowhere beaches and spending an entire day.  And alright, so they're not actually in the middle of nowhere.  They're all just somewhere in the middle of Santa Cruz and San Francisco.  But trust me when I tell you it seems like you have straight up escaped civilization.  Many of the beaches lack actual parking lots or facilities.  This is part of the draw, of course, but it also requires careful planning.  We've long thought about getting started on camping, but up until now had absolutely none of the required supplies.  This seemed like as good a time as any to get started so we purchased a small tent, a small camping stove and a camping potty to get us started on our camping materials and prepare us for our day long beach adventure.

On the actual day, we got up bright and early (especially for a Saturday) loaded the car, ate a quick breakfast and headed out.  We drove up to Santa Cruz and then beyond for about another 20 minutes before we found a lovely beach to land at.  There might have been more "secluded" options if we drove further north, but then the ride home later would have been a lot longer.  

It took us maybe 30 minutes to unload the car again and get our little area set up in the sand but almost immediately after that the kids were running around and testing the water.  Literally, the water was absolutely FREEZING.  Lucy was in on the fun too, for a bit, until she fell over and got wet all the way up to her armpits and then she was basically done with the water for the day.  

She muh preferred sitting in the tent and sampling every variety of snack we had brought.  

She did venture out to play in the sand too.

I tried to get them to make me some California Snow Angels, but the sun was in Lucy's eyes so she didn't exactly cooperate.  

My kids, being who they are quickly made friends with another family seated near us on the beach.  Not sure if they were all that interested in the actual people (though they did include too teenaged boys) the large shovels they had brought, or the snacks which as it turned out my kids thought were much better than anything their LAME-O mother had packed, but in any case, we spent the later half of our day interacting with them.

One of my favorite parts was when one of their boys pulled the girls on his boogie board like a sled.  

We were briefly interrupted when  para-sailor wiped out and his sail landed right in front of us on the beach.

It came out the their boys were big into baseball.  I'd brought along Peter's glove in case he'd wanted to throw the ball around (with me.)  Well, Peter had no interest in playing catch with me, but he was ALL about playing with the other family.  

A.J. mostly just wandered around and collected rocks and small shells.

Getting pointers on stepping through throwing the ball.

Seriously, she brought home an entire bucket full.  Most of them are now floating around to various corners of my garage. 

It was a beautiful day and a wonderful family adventure.  I can't wait until next summer when we can do it again.