First Grade

Erin headed off to first grade this morning. After our long weekend, we'll see how she's doing when she gets home. But she was up when I asked, ate her whole breakfast - without fussing even, and got dressed without complaining. She asked for soup for lunch (I think because she really wanted to use her new thermos) so she got soup, grapes, pretzels and a Reeses mini cup. As well as a note from mommy packed in her lunch box.

She was all excited to ride the bus because that's where she's going to get the chance to see her friend Brandon. They aren't in the same class this year, but will get to see each other at recess and on the bus. We headed out about the same time we'd leave last year. When we got to the bus stop I went to get Erin out of the car and she screamed....."Mommy!!! We missed the bus!!!" I looked up the road, and yes, we had missed the bus. By about 30 seconds. There it was. 100 yards up the road picking up the people at the next stop.

The poor girl just lost it. She melted into a pool of tears. I made her miss the bus. I explained that she wouldn't miss school. I would drive her and Mr. Burks (the gym teacher) would help her out of the car. I did make her get out of the van and stand by the road so I could take her picture, pretending that we were waiting for the bus. As you can see, she just couldn't hide the tears.



By the time we got to school, we'd agreed that I would walk her into class. That seemed to help even things out some. We made sure she would be able to ride the bus home today. Walked to the cafeteria where all the kids were sitting in lines on the floor. Mrs. Morris came by and gave her a big welcome as well as her very own First Grade name tag.



I haven't heard anything else so I assume that the rest of the day has gone OK. This will be a busy year. A lot more work than Kindergarten seemed to be. They don't get snack, only have one recess and one Encore period (music, P.E., computers, art...) a day as opposed to two last year. I expect she'll be pretty tired for the first week or so, but will eventually get into the swing of things.

Questions

Here are some questions that have been asked of me in the past month or so. Life starts changing when kids start paying more attention to things around them apparently.

1 -- Mommy, is God dead?

2 -- Mommy, how does a baby get out of your tummy?

3 -- Mommy, why does daddy put nails in Andrew's hands (we're in a production of Godspell now, Tom is the Judas character)

4 -- Mommy, why does Luke's daddy disappear?


These are the things Erin thinks about in the back seat of the car apparently (when not trying to spell POOL). Jeffrey asks things like, Mommy, do you like chicken with fireworks. Or any other crazy combo he can think of.

So I guess this is the age of the deeper questions. My answers, not all that deep. I'm just not ready for a heavy theological discussion or a talk about the birds and the bees with my 6-year old. So to answer....

#1 - God isn't dead sweetie. God doesn't walk around on earth like we do. God is more of a spirit. Her response...."OK".

#2 - Well a doctor had to take you and Jeffrey out of my tummy and make a little cut. I'll show you some day. Want to listen to Wall*E? How about CARS?

3 - It's all a play, but remember the story of Jesus and the cross from church school? Daddy's helping teach that story to other people.

4 - Luke's (Skywalker) daddy (really Ben) disappears when he dies. But remember it's just a movie.

I'm a little afraid of what's going to come up next time we have to drive anywhere. Looks like we've got some interesting years ahead of us.

The P-O-O-L

When Tom joined the gym with me last month we got a free pass to the pool. I've been saving it to use during this busy two weeks as a treat for the kids. Yesterday afternoon I checked the weather and decided that today would be a good day to use it. So after rehearsal last night I figured I'll tell Tom of my plans. I wanted to keep it a secret from the inhabitants of the back seat so I said to Tom.

"I think tomorrow we'll use the pass and go to the P-O-O-L (Spelling the word)"

"We're going to the pool tomorrow?????" shouted Erin from the back seat.

I had no idea she could spell the word pool. Read it and sound it out, sure, but immediately put it together. No way. It's not even really phonetic. She's not got the "oo" sound down yet. Or so I thought.

"Well there goes that surprise."

It reminds me of when I was a kid. Mom was trying to convince dad that we needed a pet. We lived in an apartment complex at the time so options were limited. She spelled the word "parakeet". "Daddy, daddy, can we please have a parakeet??? I begged immediately." I must have been a little older than Erin, but not much. I did end up getting that parakeet. And Erin got her trip to the P-O-O-L today too.

A Week with Grandma and Grandpa

From RI we headed to NY to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids had been counting the days until the visit. They were very excited to be there. Baby Will, Aunt Katie and Uncle Bill were there for much of the week also.

The highlight of the week was certainly hanging out by Grandma's pool. The kids have been waiting all summer to swim in the pool with Grandma. It was the first question they asked every morning..."Can we go swimming?" They did great, we didn't even bring their floats. They jumped into the pool, paddled around, played with water canons and noodles. Erin even practiced some diving.


We did get a couple of day trips in. We headed to a small amusement park that's just the right size for the kids. They spent all day running from ride to ride. Erin especially loved the Flume ride. There's also a small roller coaster that the kids could ride without adults. They would finish the ride and run around to get in line again. I think they hit 4 times in a row before we moved on. They also really enjoyed riding the car and boat ride with Baby Will (who will probably be a 20-year old linebacker and still called Baby Will). Tom and I also got a chance to ride a few of the adult rides with Aunt Katie, which was fun.

We also took a trip to the zoo. It's just the right size. They had a special exhibit of a white tiger that the kids really liked. They also spent a long time watching the sea lions and the polar bear. It was lots of fun.





Saturday morning we went for a walk to the playground at Grandma's school. They'd been asking all week to go, so we let them ride their bikes over to the school and played there for about an hour. Later that afternoon, Tom, the kids and I took a trip to take a walk down the Eerie Canal. We stopped and got some ice cream and walked along the canal for a mile or so. The kids got excited to see some boats moving along the canal.





It was great to spend time with our NY family. We can't wait to see them all again.