Tuesday, September 1, 2009

First day of school, 2009

Josh has pm kindergarten this year and was of course bouncing off the walls before it was time for us to leave for school - The morning seemed long for me too especially while he was asking every five minutes if it was time yet. I got out one of our clock - toys and showed him what the clock would look like when it was time to go. Even after that he was still standing here literally bouncing up and down.

When we got to school the parents and some grandparents were taking pictures and stuff and we ran into a neighbor who's in the same class and was nervous about starting school. Well, after Josh started yakking to him the kid probably didn't have a chance to even THINK about being nervous. There was also a kid we recognized from the school he went to last year and he was sitting off to the side even when the teacher asked them to line up so I suggested to Josh that he go say hi. He did and was then trying to get other kids to sit with them but since they were supposed to line up I told them to get ready to go into the building - well, guess who ended up being the line leader on the very first day of real school? As they were going in with the teacher I could hear him saying " My Dad has a ..." I don't know how that conversation ended but it was just a preview for the teacher of what's to come.

After they went into the building I stopped by the office to volunteer to help them out and they asked me to send an email to them, so I did and got a response last night at around 7:30 that they'll keep me in mind especially for days that they do health and dental screenings in the school.

A neighbor and I are working out a carpool so I won't have to drive over to the school every day and now with them both coming home on the school bus it feels like I have all this free time that just opened up. I spent yesterday cleaning the kitchen and re-arranging the table and chairs while I was cleaning the floor and even had time to get a walk in before I had to meet the buses. Since they both go to different schools they take two different buses - I got a note from each that they'd be here at exactly the same time but in two different locations - Dima's in front of the house and Josh's down the street. As I wondered how that would work out I was pacing up and down the street (and getting extra steps on the pedometer) while I waited. Josh's bus got here first and he had to scoot down the steps on his butt - his uncertainty in cases like that could be a result of the glasses - but today I explained that he could try to do it slowly while carefully holding onto the rail that's there so we'll see if that works for him today. So while we waited for Dima's bus he was going - " I'll go up to the house and you can meet me there later." Uh - I don't think so... Even with the school day over he was throwing himself at me so I could pick him up as we stood on the street.

Now Dima's a second grade - veteran of the schools so first day was really no big deal for him. It's always hard to get information from him about how things are going and what he's doing - I really wish there were some kind of webcams in the schools so I could peek in and see what they're really doing there. He picked his hot air balloon festival shirt to wear and shorts even though it was pretty chilly out especially in the morning. Today we did jeans - quickly since he had been wearing shorts with a broken snap and didn't mention it until Chris and I noticed as we were walking out the door that his pants were loose. Here's me running up the stairs for jeans while Papa and Dima went outside in case the bus came - then me hustling him into our beetle barn to change his britches. Giving them the responsibility of picking out their own clothes sometimes amounts to um... interesting pattern combinations and at times surprises like this one. There are times that it really doesn't matter so I'll let it slide - but when Josh came out with the flowered shirt and plaid shorts yesterday I had to make him turn back to change - though it would have made some very funny first day pics!!

This season Dima's going to be Chris's "assistant coach" while he's coaching Josh's team. That means he'll be the example of how to run the drills for the little kids and it'll get him more - + free! -ice time. He seemed proud of himself that he'll be doing it - he's a good skater and it's nice that he can take a role of responsibility. I think this is going to be a good thing for him.

We'd talked about letting him opt out of skating next year to do Boy Scouts instead since he has a friend who's doing the same and since he really does need the one on one interaction with other kids his own age to get better at the social stuff. We'll probably leave it up to him - the team for the next level is more involved and would mean more traveling so that would be the time to drop it if he's going to. If the helping out with Josh's team works out he'd still have a hockey connection and would still get to skate as well as the outdoor stuff which seems more suited to him. I think he'll want to do the outdoor Boy Scout stuff and that's fine with me it means more caching and maybe I'll actually learn the orienteering stuff so we can use it for some really challenging hikes.

I was just unplugging the camera and Josh was like " take a second day picture" so I'll put it on here too. The explanation is that he listens to music on the CD player while rolling around on the floor. Whatever.....

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