We've got a Kindergartener!

We've almost survived the first week of kindergarten.

I am still in a little shock that this is our new normal. I am also praying that Andrew gets to be a "late bird" and go to school from 9:20am-12:50pm instead of 8:30am-12pm (we find out next week). Most people are probably thinking I'm crazy... but my kids sleep in till 8am sometimes and I don't want to mess with a good thing... especially since I'm up half the night with a teething Ryan these days.

Other than me having to wake up at 7am so that we are ready to leave by 8am, things have gone well... or at least have been entertaining.

Tuesday morning started off with us heading out the door and discovering my neighbor Kara & family had decorated our front door with streamers and a little sign for Andrew. It was adorable and totally made me tear up.

Andrew lucked out and got a good friend in his class from last year. They are such cuties and it made him automatically relieved to know he had a bud in class with him.

Back to School Night was so surreal. It was so weird to be sitting and listening instead of being up there doing the talking as the teacher. I am also completely overwhelmed with all of the fliers and handouts getting shoved my way with information. I need it all to be digitized and sent to my inbox.

Andrew's love of rules has come out in full force this week. He was made for kindergarten and structure. He spent time after school yesterday explaining to me the rules for using the kinder bikes on the bike path. He even walked the whole path acting like he was riding a bike so that I could see where the bikes can and cannot go. This morning he told me all about the rules with the swings in the kinder yard. He thinks it is totally unfair that he can only pump 10 times before he has to get off and give someone else a turn to swing... but I'll bet he'll force himself to do it anyway.

On the first day of school the kids read Owen by Kevin Henkes. Yesterday they drew portraits and today they got to make "Sharkey" hats... since our school mascot is a Shark. They also got to visit the library. Andrew can't wait to go and "buy" books there. I laughed when he said that because he rarely gets to go to the library... and if we do go, we are usually paying a fine. It is much cheaper for us to order books on Amazon than it is to use a public library. My goal for Andrew is to not get banned from the school library for never bringing back his books.

Today when I arrived to pick Andrew up, he didn't come outside. The teacher motioned for me to come inside and I got to hang out while we discussed an altercation between Andrew and another boy. It become clear pretty quickly that Andrew was at fault and he wasn't sharing why he punched the kid. It seems to be a rite of passage for him at a new school... since he punched a kid on the first or second day at preschool too.

Fortunately, after lots of conversation at home, he finally remembered what had happened and it turned out to just be a silly accident. The kids had been goofing off and he'd been punching a paper and didn't realize there was a face on the other side of that paper. I think Andrew's teacher is awesome and he was pretty excited that she called me at home so that we could clear up the issue and she could let me know that it had been an accident too. Phew. I was worried he was going to be labeled as the problem child from day one. At least now she definitely knows his name and mine... for better or for worse. Let's hope he keeps his hands to himself from here on out.

The other highlight of the day today happened when I opened Andrew's bag and saw a crumpled page that said, "Please finish this :)" on it. It was partially colored and Andrew mentioned that he'd made a new friend in class and they spent quite a lot of time talking about light sabers. When I said something about how he was so lucky to get to do some coloring at home he mentioned that most others did theirs at school and colored faster than he did. I'm guessing it may have had something to do with all the chatting he'd been doing. Like mother like son. :)

He was totally happy to color in every single detail of his picture when we got home. I don't think I have ever seen that much blue sky colored on a paper ever. He had also cut out the scissor lines before coloring, which made the whole experience super complicated since his paper was all cut up and he needed to color it while keeping it still. He came up with the idea to tape it to the table with painters tape, so we did.

I am scouring the volunteer sign up sheets to try and figure out how I can get in to help in his class sometime soon. He loves his teacher, is excited every day when he wakes up to get to school right away, and he especially loves going early so he can play on the playground a bit before school starts.

I'm really interested to see how things go this year. I'm hoping he has a blast and he stays positive and enthusiastic about learning!

Other than kindergarten, we've kept the schedule pretty low key this week. We've chilled and watched TV in the early evening and I've let Andrew play legos for hours and hours since he acts like he doesn't get enough time to play now that he is at school. He would prefer if we lived like hermits and never left the house.

I have to force him to go to the park because I can't stand staying home all afternoon. Afterwards he'll tell me that our adventure was way more fun that he thought it was going to be. Today we road bikes up the hill to get popsicles and then road to the park, played, and then road home. I pushed the other two littles in the jogger while I ran after him (my second jog of the day).

I expected tantrums and meltdowns since I was exhausted and wanted to walk (and I figured he would be even more tired)... but little dude road the whole way and kept telling me I was too slow.

Let's hope our last day of K for the week goes well and we can enjoy a lovely and long weekend... and hopefully get to sleep in once or twice.