Field Day!

Henry recently had Field Day at school.  There was much anticipation, and in the end, a good time was had by all.  I appreciated that the kids all had fun, and the events weren't overly competitive.  They were much more focused on participating and having fun than on winning anything.  There was lots of water activities, and while the kids at first shirked the thought of getting wet, in the end, they loved it.  Here is our photo recap:

First, they had free play on the basketball court.

Next was the first water activity.  It involved wringing a wet sponge on the person in line behind you.  The second round included the chance to dump a glass of water on the person in line behind you.  The goal was to be the wettest team in the end.

Next was the classic game of "tug of war".  First, it was Henry's class against another class.  Henry's class got womped.  So Henry's teacher and I jumped in for the next round and helped their team to win.  Next, they switched up in boys against the girls.  Again, girls womped the boys.  So again, teacher and I jumped on and saved some face for the boys.  (Can I just say that my arms were sore all weekend because of this!)

Next was a game of chase with the waist flags.  Last man standing with his flags in-tact, won.  Henry tied in one round for first.

Next up, another water activity.  This one involved passing a full bucket with holes in the bottom over the heads of the team until it reached the end of the line and the remaining water was dumped into a bucket.  In theory, the first team to fill their bucket won.  In Henry's case, he ended up at the end of the line with some of his buddies.  Very little of the water left in the holey bucket ended up getting poured in the team bucket.  

This was some kind of obstacle course.  There was really no goal and no winners.  The kids just took turns rolling a tire back and forth, and running a styrofoam cylinder across while jumping hurdles.  It did burn off a lot of energy.

On to the Bounce Houses.  There were about 5 bounce houses and inflatable slides set up.  Even Henry's teacher got in on the action.

Next, it was scooter racing in the cafeteria.  This looked like so much fun I wanted to try (but I didn't).

This was followed by a few games of dodge ball in the school gym.

SNOW CONES!

The kids got to jump rope or play with hula hoops.  Henry's jump roping skills are on fire!

The final event was another that involved water.  The kids had to wrap a towel around their back, run to the pool, dip the towel in, and wrap it around their back again.  They then ran to the next kid who repeated those steps.  In the end, the kids were all a giggling, sopping mess.

From there, they went to the side of the school and had a picnic lunch.

All in all, a great time was had by all.  Even Nana and Papa stopped by to watch some of the activities.

Multi-Cultural Day

Today was multi-cultural day at Henry's school. The kids were encouraged to dress in clothing of their "native" country. The kids who "dressed" then got to walk in a parade in front of the parents and the kids that didn't "dress".

Henry marched proudly (if a bit shyly)in his Russian shirt.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died so these were the only 2 shots I got. I also feel funny about posting pictures of other people's kids, hence the green splotches on their faces.

But the parade was amazing. Henry's school is very diverse and some of the kids wore wonderful and beautiful cultural costumes. We were constantly pointing to different ones that caught our eyes.

Of course, the "American" kids dressed as cowboys and baseball players. It was a fun event to participate in. There were also some programs for the kids that I didn't get to stay and watch. I'm anxious to hear Henry's description of them.

"My Mom"

Henry recently brought home a little book that he made for me and about me at school.  It is so endearing and insightful to his thoughts about me.  I'll share the content with you, but rest assured that the actual book contains many things that needed to be read and interpreted for me.  We're really going to try and focus on handwriting and spelling over the summer!

Also, each page is decorated with "lovely" pictures of me, us, our house, and us playing football.

"My mom was born in IL. Now my mom sits at a computer. My mom loves me. My mom's hair is brown and gray. She is fun and the boss of the house."

"My mom's job is to clean the house and help me. She is sweet and cool. She is pretty. She has 2 jobs. She reads nice, she has nice shoes, nice clothes, nice attitude and nice love. I love mom."

"My mom's favorite thing is snuggling with me, and reading and kissing me and being loving. I like it, too. And my mom loves my family and loves her family. Her favorite movie is Survivor and Iron Man. She loves me."

"In bed, she lets me play on the computer. She loves me and I love her and I love the earth and take care of my mom and everywhere around. I like that."

"My mom loves everything about me and my family and the earth. When I am sad, she helps me and my family and the earth and my tree. I love my mom and my trees and the earth."

I think they worked on each of the worksheets on different days. You can see that this project overlapped a little bit with earth day and arbor day, with all the earth-loving and tree-loving.

I love how much he knows he is loved. I love that he thinks I am the boss of the house. I hate that he knows my hair is gray. I love that he knows my favorite things involve loving him. My favorite movie is NOT Iron Man, but I did go to see it during this project, so it made it into the story.

I'm glad that he mentioned all the ways that I am nice and comforting to him, and that the book wasn't about me yelling at him.

This is definitely something to treasure (and something to bring out and embarrass him with when he brings home his first girlfriend!).

Braggin Dragon and Tooth News

I think I've mentioned before about some of the challenges Henry has been having in first grade in the public school system.  His teacher has been awesome in working with both Henry and I.  One of the goals that the entire class has is to earn the title of Braggin Dragon for a week.  Ms. M clearly communicated to the children what they needed to do to earn the title.

Henry has wanted it for a while.  Ms. M explained to him very clearly what he needed to do in order to earn this goal.  He was very discouraged because some of the kids were on their second time around and he had yet to earn the title.

Then, we had a very bad week.  Actually, a couple of very bad weeks.  Okay...maybe they weren't so bad.  When we started this whole color coding thing, the infractions were many and they were major.  So now, the infractions aren't as many, and they aren't anything close to major.  But still, when you are looking at a color coded chart for the week that should be a sea of green, and you're seeing splashes of red and yellow all over it, it seems like a bad week.  I guess the reality was that we had made major improvements, and then we got stuck.  And I was tired of being stuck.

So Ms. M and I had a nice little email exchange, she had some conversations with Henry, and then I had some conversations with Henry.  Serious conversations.  Clear expectations.  Threats that he knew I would follow through on.  As a result, I missed going to my super bowl party and ended up watching most of the game by myself after he went to bed.  He was disappointed, but he got the point.  I was irritated that I lost my privilege of going to the party because of his behavior, and he got that point, too.

So before the next week started, he asked me:  "Mom, what would happen if I stayed green the whole week?"  Since that had never happened, I wasn't really thinking it was something that could be a reality.  So I responded:  "We'll have a party like you wouldn't believe!"  He knew that if he could pull it off, he'd also be a shoo-in for Braggin Dragon.

Monday:  All green...happy child, happy mama!
Tuesday:  All green...happy child, happy mama!
Wednesday:  All green...thrilled child, thrilled mama!
Thursday:  All green...proud child, worried mama (how was I going to plan the "Party That You Wouldn't Believe!")
Friday:  All green...Braggin Dragon child, ecstatic mama.  And special thanks to Leslie who found out that the Aeros hockey team was playing at home and offering special pricing for mid-field seating 9 rows behind the penalty box...instant "Party That You Wouldn't Believe!"

We rocked it and pumped it about how special it was to have that kind of week; how proud he should be of the effort he put into his behavior for the week; how much we knew that he had worked hard to achieve this goal.  If it provided positive reinforcement, then it happened.

One of the things about being the Braggin Dragon is that you get to bring in a poster all about you.  Since this wasn't necessarily meant to be an educational experience, I didn't feel guilty doing most of the work on this one myself.  I did let him select which pictures, help with the layout, and dictate the text that went with each photo.  It will hang outside his classroom all week.  Also, classroom time was dedicated to him explaining to his classmates what was on the poster.

Another part of the honors is to actually get to bring Braggin Dragon home for the weekend.  The kids are encouraged to interact with it during this time, and then are requested to provide an entry in the Braggin Dragon's journal about the time that they spent together.

Finally, there are some class room privileges that come with it as well.  Mainly, Braggin Dragon gets to sit on Henry's desk all week, and Henry gets to be the line leader and a few other things.

I was worried that his behavior last week was a flash in the pan.  However, this week is shaping up to go down as another great week.  We had one issue yesterday, but really, it was typical boy stuff and not really the behavior we have been so focused on.  However, one of my threats did include the condition that any further reds and yellows on his behavior chart would incur 5 "extra" chores each.  Since we had a yellow, I felt like it was my duty to consistent parenting and following through on my "threats" to actually assign them.

First, he actually reminded me that he needed to be assigned the 5 extra chores.  Then, as I announced the chores, he actually cheered.  And finally, went about happily singing while he dutifully accomplished all that was assigned.  Makes me wonder how effective that was as a form of discipline, but I'll stick with it for now.

And, our final news from last night, he officially lost one of his top teeth.  It has been loose...really loose, for several weeks now.  But it just wasn't ready.  Then he looked at me last night and moved it totally sideways with his tongue.  I decided it was time.  I reached in, gave it a tug and it was gone.  Henry wasn't too sure about it, but it was over before he had time to think about it and the look of surprise and relief on his face was priceless...wish I could have captured it with my camera.  Instead, here is a picture of his new smile:

100 Days

Today is the 100th Day of the school year. To celebrate, a weekend project was sent home. The directions were both explicit and generic at the same time. What it boiled down to, was that the child was supposed to affix 100 of "something" to this yellow piece of paper and return it on Monday. Explicitly, the parents were directed to allow this to be the child's project.

So, when this came home on Friday, we started discussing what Henry should do. A little guidance isn't a bad thing, right? I figured it would help him learn how to plan and design a project before he just jumps in and starts gluing things down. We continued the discussions on Saturday, and by the end of the day, we had the rough outline of what he wanted his project to be.

He wanted to have a dinosaur on it, but decided he wasn't that good a drawing dinosaurs. We found a coloring book that had dinosaurs in it. So he picked the one he wanted, picked the colors he wanted to use and set out to color it.

Now, I must admit that I helped him by cutting out the dinosaur once he was done coloring it.

After that, he counted out popcorn piles. He counted out piles of 10, and then counted by 10s to make sure that he had a hundred. (Mommy recounted everything and found a few discrepancies, but I made him recount the piles that were off and fix them on his own.)

Next, he decided where he wanted the various groups of popcorn to be attached to the dinosaur. I applied the glue as I wasn't ready to hand over the glue stick to Henry at the kitchen table. He placed all of the kernels where he wanted them.

After he was done, he remembered that we had some glitter glue and begged to have some glitter glue applied. Again, I wasn't ready to hand over the glitter glue to him at the kitchen table, but he picked the colors and placement, I just did the actual application.

At the bottom, he wrote the label for the piece, and then we accented it with more glitter glue.

In the end, I feel like this was a good representation of what he wanted it to be. I think he was proud of it, but of course he worried how it would stack up against what the other kids did. He also worried about what his teacher would think of it. I reassured him that the important thing for this project was that he followed the directions he was given, and that HE was proud of the work he had done.

Never underestimate a First Grader

First, here is a picture of the boy dressed for school this morning:

Whoa, you say. Wait, he's still wearing his jammies! Yep, it was pajama day at school today, in celebration of the last day of school before winter break. Much time and deliberation was spent picking the perfect pair of jammies. In the end, sports won (versus the "Total Knockout" pair that I picked) and he chose the baseball themed pajamas.

I met him for lunch and it was cute to see all the kiddos decked out in their pajamas.

And as for the title of this post, I am truly amazed at what Henry can figure out. In celebration for our Family Day this year, I decided to give Henry his own iTouch. He's played on his cousin's and uncle's iPhones, and took to it like a fish to water. At 6, he certainly has no need for a cell phone. But I figured the iTouch would be a nice thing to have for many reasons. I figured I could download some inexpensive games and it could be used for entertainment at home and under certain circumstances away from home (like on long car trips or air travel).

More selfishly, I was tired of dealing with the CDs that he listens to at bedtime. I got him an alarm clock that has a docking station on it so that he can charge and listen to his iTouch through it. I have been able to load an incredible amount of content to his iTouch, including bible stories, Arthur and Junie B. Jones books, and various types of music (including Taylor Swift) that he can listen to at bedtime. The alarm clock provides a sleep option that automatically switches it off after 30 minutes.

Also, it's become kind of a family toy. The adults have been known to pick it up and surf the web using it, since it has wireless capabilities.

And speaking of it being wireless, I am not always good at disabling the wireless after I've finished using it. Yesterday, Henry was excited to show me how he could go to you*tube and watch videos on his iTouch. YIKES! Fortunately, the video that caught his eye was the recap of a soccer game. Needless to say, I'll be much more careful about disabling the wireless when it is not in the hands of an adult. Otherwise, I'm sure he'd figure out how to shop in the iTunes store and start downloading a bunch of Star Wars games.

What I've learned so far in First Grade

First Grade in public school has been an interesting learning experience. After the newness of a different school and schedule settled in, I started meeting Henry for lunch every Friday. I think we both look forward to this lunch date every week. And it's given me a peek into Henry's day that I would typically be clueless about. His school doesn't seem to be big on parents helping out in the classrooms so I don't have an excuse to go and hang out there during the day (beside which, I don't think my employer would be happy about that).

It's interesting to watch the dynamics between Henry and the rest of the kids. He definitely has some kids that he considers friends. And then other kids, he doesn't even know their name yet. Since he packs his lunch most days, he ends up sitting next to the same group of kids. They have pretty strict rules in the lunch room. You're not allowed to save seats and you have to sit next to whoever you are in line with. The kids that pack their lunch come in, grab their lunch box, and then sit down. Each class sits down one side of a long stretch of tables. If you are buying your lunch, you have to go and get in line and those kids end up at the other end of the table. If parents or grand-parents are visiting, they sit across on the other side of the table.

Henry attends school with a very diverse group. As a matter of fact, he is the minority and may be the only Caucasian student in his classroom. This was the case in his last school, as well. So Henry does quite will with the diverse types of names his classmates have, such as Mohammed, Aban, Monsie, Abdul, and other assorted names. He doesn't think they are strange or different. So far, Henry doesn't see skin color or ethnicity as a way of identifying people. While conversations at home include references to people being Asian or Middle Eastern or African American, Henry just hasn't seemed to make that connection yet. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but for now, it is what it is.

The other interesting thing is the terms and phrases that they use. Here are a few that I've picked up on:

• Our voices are off; our lips are closed; our volume is zero: these are all ways of saying that the kids are expected to be totally quiet.
• Our seatbelts are on: this means that the students are walking with their hands grasped behind their backs while they are walking down the hall
• High five: this is a way to get the kids attention...when they hear this, they are to stop what they are doing and raise one of their hands to show that they are paying attention
• Check Yourself, Check Yourself, Foul: This is a communication between students. If one student is doing something that another finds irritating or offensive, they do a hand sign and say "check yourself" as a way to ask the other student to stop. They give two warnings and then call foul, which means they tell the teacher.

We've had our struggles with First Grade. But it seems we're moving in the right direction. Henry's teacher has been absolutely fabulous in working with me on some very specific strategies and goals that have proven to be very successful. I daresay that we've had the best week of school this week. Henry and I agreed on some very specific long-term and short-term goals for him for the last two weeks. He earned two of the three rewards that were put out there and it has left him feeling quite proud of himself. We'll be heading to Target tomorrow for some new Star Wars gear!

About the time I get first grade down pat, he'll be in second grade!



PS: I also learned that Junie B. Jones is not just for girls. Henry absolutely loves the book series. I tend to agree that Barbara Park has done a great job at capturing the spirit of first graders!!

Wordless Wednesday

Nate the Great

Today, there was a "Book Character Parade" at Henry's school. So we reviewed many of Henry's favorite books and tried to decide what would be a good character for him to be for the parade. His first wish was to wear his Anakin costume. While we do have some Star Wars books in our library, I wished for him to pick a more literary character instead of the a movie character that had been made into a book.

We considered Roscoe Riley, but decided at the end that it would be hard to tell if Henry was dressed as himself or as Roscoe Riley, since Roscoe is a first grade student. We needed something that would stand out a bit more.

Of course, we considered Curious George or The Man with the Yellow Hat. But in the end, we didn't think we had enough time to pull those costumes together.

We contemplated David of the David Shannon series, but ran into the same issue as Roscoe Riley.

We reconsidered Anakin and again, dismissed it thinking we could come up with something better.

In the end, we decided on Nate the Great.

We figured we could pick up a few props and be able to do the title character justice. After searching high and low for a kid's-sized trenchcoat that could be picked up on the cheap, I finally settled on an adult sized one. At first, I thought I would do some creative sewing on it to try and make it a bit smaller. I found one at the Good Will store, so I wasn't in much and figured I didn't have much to lose. But after trying it on him as is, it was decided that wearing the bigger size added a "cuteness factor". So I left it alone.

Here is the finished product:

I had fun attending the parade. I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the students actually participated. Those that didn't dress served as the audience of the parade. The students gathered in the cafeteria and then paraded through each of the pods to show off their costumes.

Some other notable characters were spotted. The first grade teachers all dressed as different iterations of Junie B. Jones (who I thought was just for girls, but Henry absolutely loves!). The Cat in the Hat was there, along with Thing 1 and Thing 2. Clifford the Big Red Dog made an appearance. So did Snow White, Hannah Montana and Fancy Nancy. Spongebob Squarepants was also there (is he really a book character?). The main characters from "If You Give a Mouse" and "If You Give a Pig" also made an appearance. And that was just the teachers!

Among the students, Diary of a Wimpy Guy was very popular. There were also several princesses, a few butterflies and sports players. There were a few Star Wars characters, including Darth Vader himself. Oh, and there were various pirates. And Batman, Spiderman and the rest of the Super Heroes (so comic book heroes count as book characters?). Oh, and my favorite, there was a whole class that went with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom...all posing as a different letter of the alphabet. Very clever indeed.

All in all, it seems all of the kids had fun and I was glad I got to participate. I felt bad for the mom that was just showing up as it was all over and the rest of the parents were heading out.

School...so far

So, here we are, well into "First Grade". So far, things are going okay.

We have our morning routine down pretty well. We know that we have to leave at 7:35 to navigate the drop-off traffic and have him in his classroom before the 8 a.m. bell. His alarm goes off at 6:30, usually playing the Bible Story CD that he chose the night before. This has been so wonderful. Last year, I woke him and that did NOT go over well. Now, his CD player starts talking and he gradually wakes up. Sometimes, I still have to go and cajole him out of bed, but many mornings, he's up on his own and ready to start the day. We have scheduled 30 minutes for "upstairs" time to allow for getting dressed and brushing hair and teeth, and such.

By 7 a.m., we're ready to move downstairs for the rest of our routine. When we get downstairs, Henry will usually select what he wants for breakfast (he's on a cereal kick right now) and climb up on his stool at the island to eat. Meanwhile, I work from the other side of the island and prepare his lunch (unless he's forgotten his lunchbox at school, in which case, he eats cafeteria food for that day). So far, he still enjoys that I pack a lunch for him. And I enjoy that time we have together at the island each morning. We usually review his spelling words during this time, too.

Today, his lunchbox contained half a PB/J sandwich on whole wheat bread, a handful of fresh mushrooms, a bag of grapes, and a drinkable yogurt. Typically, he will eat most of this. Perhaps a few of the grapes will come back.

After he's done eating, he'll put his dishes up in the dishwasher. By then, I've moved on to making sure his backpack is ready. I update his daily folder with whatever books we read the night before and whatever homework assignments he's done. His homework this week includes the activities of deciding which is his favorite meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) and then creating a menu for that meal. Another task is to keep track of all of the food he eats for a day and then to organize it into the food groups.

Most mornings, I end up with about 10 minutes to sit down and watch a bit of TV before we actually have to leave. Yeah, me.

And then we head off, usually with Dolly in tow (our little doggy goes to work with me). The drop-off line is usually about 20-25 cars long, but moves along and a good pace. And while we're waiting, we have the same conversation:

Mama : Can I walk in with you?
Henry: No, I can do it by myself.
Mama: I know you can do it by yourself, but I like to come in with you.
Henry: Oh, all right. You can come in.

He's gotten a little more resigned to the fact that I like to walk him in. And most of the goofy parents that walk in park across the street and create a traffic hazard by trying to cross against school traffic. That means there is always a parking spot right out front in the school lot.

He's such a silly boy in that he always wants to take the "short cut". I guess it's a matter of school folk lore that this is a shortcut to Pod 2, where his classroom is, because I've heard other kids discussing it in the hallway. The funny thing is, it is SO NOT a shortcut. So the deal we cut was that when I walk in with him, we do not take the shortcut. But when he walks in by himself, he can take whatever "cut" he wants to get to his classroom.

So, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes he eats the cafeteria offering for lunch. Lunch is $1.40 a day. I can hardly pack his lunch for that much, so don't mind when he wants to eat there versus me packing. Most of the time, he eats the cafeteria food when he's forgotten his lunchbox at school. But here's the thing. They don't handle cash at all. You set up an account for your child, and then they key in their PIN number on a keypad. His pin is a 6-digit number. At the beginning of the school year, I was aghast that they would expect a first grader to learn and remember a 6-digit pin number in order to eat lunch. But then, when I started working with Henry, he learned his pin in a single day. I guess maybe the school knows what it's doing after all.

In the afternoons, we started with Hailey picking him up after school. However, a few weeks ago, he started making noises about wanting to take the bus home. So, I did all the research to learn which bus route he was on and what time it would drop him at the end of our street. Starting last week, he is now taking the bus home and Hailey meets him at the end of our street. The first day, he was very stressed out by it all. But after that, he seems to be enjoying it and wants to continue taking the bus.

As far as classroom, well, we're facing some challenges there. The teacher operates on a color coding system. There are five "colors" and it's up to the kids behavior. They start on dragon, which is the school mascot and the "best" color. For each infraction, the child is asked to change to a different color, cycling to green, blue, yellow and red. Per the teacher's description, a note home or a phone call will be placed when the child gets to the yellow and red spectrum. So far, our worst day has been blue, which sometimes results in a small note in the daily chart.

I had to spend some time thinking about how to deal with this. In the end, based on reading I've done on parenting and adoption boards, I had decided that school stuff was school stuff. But that appropriate behavior needed to be reinforced from home. So, for now, our policy is that we discuss what "color" he is each day. When it isn't dragon, we discuss the infractions that caused the color change and discuss different choices that should have been made. And that's the end of it. However, we've also agreed that if/when he gets into the yellow and red spectrum, there may be additional consequences at home for the behaviors that got him there.

He's also had some extreme bouts of frustration. I have my theories and opinions about what is causing it. Fortunately, his teacher approached me and asked if we could get the school counselor involved. I was most agreeable and he is meeting regularly with her. I'm hoping that she can provide some insight on these behaviors and together, we can help him not to have to experience such stress and anxiety...that and the the huge order I placed with Amazon on childhood stress.

That's all I've got for now. I realize that for those that don't follow me on Facebook, you may not be aware of the "elbow incident". Look for a post soon (with pictures) for an update on that topic.

First Grade - First Day of School

Monday was Henry's first day of first grade. He is going to public school this year, which to me is a very big difference from his days at the small Montessori he had attended from 18 months - kindergarten.

I tried talking to him about this all summer long to keep an open dialog and make sure that he felt comfortable expressing any nervousness or anxiety he might feel. I knew I had nervousness and anxiety about the change, so I totally anticipated that he would, too. Usually, when I brought it up, he would respond and quickly change the subject. Not in a way that indicated he didn't want to talk about it, but in a way that indicated he didn't think it was a very interesting topic: Yeah, I'm going to a new school at the end of summer. Big deal! Let's talk about something that applies to me NOW!

I had taken him with me when I registered in June. I was hoping we'd have some freedom to roam the halls and start acclimating ourselves to this new environment. But there were activities going on in some of the classrooms so we weren't allowed to. We were told that we could attend the Kindergarten open house in August, but were also told that it really was geared towards the kindergartners and that we probably wouldn't get much useful information by attending. I called a few days before that open house, and was again told that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to attend, but that another open house was being held for the rest of the students.

Sure enough, we got a post card a few days later inviting us to attend the open house to meet the teachers. The classroom assignments were posted by the school entrance on Friday, August 21. I swung by there and noted Henry's teacher's name. Not that it meant anything to me as I knew absolutely nothing about any of the teachers at this school and really didn't know anyone who had attended that I could pump for info. But at least we had a name and I could work with Henry on learning that new name.

The meet and greet was on Thursday, August 20th. After Henry got home from his field trip to the Kemah Boardwalk, we raced up to the school...both of us anxious to meet this new person that would have such an influence on Henry for the next 9 months. She seemed nice. With it being an open house, there wasn't much of an opportunity for one-on-one conversation. However, I did get the opportunity to share with her a letter I had written and a brochure explaining the impact of Henry being one of Jehovah's Witnesses would have on his life in the classroom. She is entering her 5th year as a teacher and has not had a JW in her classroom yet. She seemed to appreciate the information that I shared and said that she would reach out to me with any additional questions she had after reading the materials I left her and as we approached the holiday season. I felt pretty good about how that went.

After checking out the classroom a bit, we decided to explore the rest of the school. We met the Librarian in the hallway and Henry inquired as to how many books were in her library. I think he was appropriately impressed when she announced that there were about 14,000 books.

Then, it was off to the cafeteria to take care of a few other essentials, like ordering him his school spirit shirt. I must say I was extremely disappointed in the school's choice of theme this year. The spirit shirts are camouflage. To me, camouflage represents military and war. I really don't want to see my 6 year old wearing something that represents war. When the time is right, I will express my feelings to the principal. Against my better judgment, I did purchase a shirt for Henry. We'll see if I can actually let him wear it when spirit day rolls around.

We were also able to set up his cafeteria account. I intend to continue packing Henry's lunches, but thought he might want to add a milk or occasionally eat the cafeteria fare. Interesting to find out that the way it all works is that the student has to key in their student ID into a keypad to pay for his cafeteria lunches. Wow, I wonder how long it will take for Henry to memorize his 6 digit ID number for occasional uses in the cafeteria?

Next, we signed up for the placard we needed to hang from the rearview mirror for pick-ups. I must say, that have this down to a science, but this is another 3 digit number Henry needs to remember for their after-school pick-up process.

Okay...whew, I think we are all set for the first day. We've met the teacher. We're signed up for the cafeteria and pick-up line. We've gone clothes shopping and school supply shopping and got all of the noted prerequisites. We've labeled everything with Henry's name or initials. We even special-ordered the pencils with Henry's name printed on them. We've got the new backpack and lunchbox, complete with embroidered initials straight from the Land's End website.

On Sunday evening, we spent a fun afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese (see yesterday's post) celebrating the end of summer and start of school. But the rest of the day was very low-key. I also wanted to make sure that he got into bed at his normal bedtime since he would be waking much earlier the next day. Nana stopped by and read him "The Night Before First Grade".

I must say, when Henry's alarm went off at 6:30, he wasn't too happy. He felt like he had been awakened in the middle of the night (like when we go on vacation to Chicago). But it didn't take long for the excitement of the day to take over.

We had picked the outfit the night before, so he quickly got himself dressed and headed off to the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair. I had a surprise waiting for him in there.

It was a special note written on the mirror with the new Crayola window markers. He really enjoyed it. I tried to line the heart up to where I thought his head would be looking in the mirror. As a matter of fact, he wanted to leave this on the mirror and have me update it each day with whatever day of school it is. So, there I was last night, erasing the "1st" and replacing it with "2nd".

After we got downstairs, Leslie's mom called to wish him a good first day. Here he is chatting with her:

After breakfast and lunch packing, we headed outside for the photo shoot. Here are a couple of poses before we left for school. Notice the shirt change. Yep, he spilled his breakfast on the first orange shirt we had put on him. I couldn't send him to school (or take first day pictures) looking like that. Fortunately, he had another orange shirt in his wardrobe.

Then we went and picked up Papa. I anticipated that traffic around the school was going to be hectic. So the plan was for Papa to drop Henry and I off and then go somewhere nearby and hang out until I was ready. It worked pretty well and allowed me to walk in with Henry without getting all hot and sweaty.

All the first graders (all 9 classes of them) lined up in the hallway in the First Grade Pod. About 15 minutes before school was scheduled to start, one of the teachers told the parents to kiss their kids good-bye because they were heading off to the classrooms now. I asked his teacher if I had to leave or could I go to the classroom. She said it would be fine if I went to the classroom with them. Henry's classroom is actually in the 2nd grade pod. I hung out for about 15 more minutes and watched as the teacher patiently helped the kids unpack all of their school supplies and get their lunchboxes and backpacks organized. It truly reinforced for me how special teachers really are.

When I picked Henry up yesterday, he announced that he'd been chosen for a special assignment to move the lunchboxes to the cafeteria. Interestingly, he also forgot to bring home his own lunchbox. He later shared that the teacher had warned him that if he continued to talk in the hallway, he was going to lose his job. Yep, that's my boy!

He was quite upset to find that many of the school supplies that we had meticulously picked out ended up as community property in the classroom. "But mom, they're going to write in my notebook. What if they just scribble scrabble?" The funniest part of this was "They're even going to share my sanitizer!"...oh the inhumanity of it. We finally had to leave the subject alone because he really was upset about it, even to the point of tears.

Henry was truly exhausted last night and took himself upstairs for his bedtime routine a full 30 minutes before I would have required it. He decided to take a bubble bath last night (he usually opts for showers) and I think it was a good choice to help calm him for good nights rest.

One of his "homework" assignments is for him and I to read together for 15 minutes each day. This is not a problem for us as it has always been part of our routine. But he is much more aware now and wants to make sure that he gets his full 15 minutes. And the reading we do must be logged on his homework sheet each night and returned to school the next day. So we each picked a book and climbed into bed. In the end, Henry got to bed 30 minutes earlier than his normal bedtime and woke in a great frame of mind this morning.

Since he left his lunchbox at school, we decided he should eat the cafeteria food today. Nana read him the menu and he selected the option that included the broccoli spears and fresh fruit salad (of course). Maybe I cheated, but I wrote his 6-digit number on a piece of paper and tucked it in his pocket to help him when it came time to "pay" for his lunch.

Before we left, he indicated that he didn't want me to walk him in today. He wanted to go in by himself. He assured me that he knew exactly where he needed to go. I was disappointed, but game to let him exert his independence. However, when we got close to the school, he started wavering about being so sure that he knew where to go. I also spied an open parking space right in front of the school. So I decided to park and walk in with him afterall. He wasn't too happy about this, but announced happily "I know. I'll just walk ahead of you and pretend you're not there." Ouch! In the end, he didn't mind that I walked in with him and even graced me with a good-bye kiss without me having to ask.

Oy, why do they have to grow up so fast?

Graduation...the recap

What a fabulous day. Everything turned out perfect.

I feel like Henry and I are so fortunate to have such a wonderful group of friends and family. Let me start by saying that EVERYONE I invited to the graduation and after party came. And everyone was so generous with their love and kindness towards to my son. I'm overwhelmed!

The program was wonderful. Henry's class sang "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" and "YMCA". Henry had been practicing his songs for weeks, complete with hand motions. I have tons of pictures, but feel uncomfortable posting when there are other children. So I've cropped some down to exclude the faces of other children. But you can see that he was really into it.

After all of the classes performed, then the graduation ceremony commenced. There were a total of 14 from the school that graduated. Again, I'm going to crop to only show Henry out of consideration to the rest of the kids. The group also sang another song after the graduation.

As he waits in line for his turn (conveniently standing right next to my seat):

As he receives his diploma (that's his teacher off to the right):

Humming during the special graduation song:

And a few shots after the ceremony:

After it was over, we booked it home for the after party. All three of Henry's teachers stopped by for a few minutes. We felt very honored that they could join our little celebration.

Since it was late evening by the time we got started, I kept the foodstuffs pretty simple. We had cake, of course. And I also served queso and a yummy artichoke cheese dip. I also put out both fruit and vegetable trays. Below are some pictures of the food setup (although missing most of the food) and the decorations, including the cake and another small surprise.

The balloons, a part of any celebration:

The place where the food was ultimately laid out and devoured from:

The cake with the little graduate on it:

And a surprise gift we had for all of our guests...yes they are real and you can eat them:

Everyone seemed to have a great time and the only thing that was missing was our loved ones who don't live local enough to have participated.

Thanks to everyone who did come and for the exceptional generosity of each and every one of you.

And for all of those who worried about me, I made it through okay. I did shed a few tears, but more so, enjoyed the evening and the company of my dear friends.