First Full Week of School

Robert started kindergarten! He likes to go to school, he likes to come home, he likes his teacher, he likes a challenging new playground, and he especially likes all the neat little awards in place to promote positive behavior. He has come home happier and a little more mature this week. He even plays better with James, believe it or not.

Slinging on his backpack

We've made it a habit to play on the playground for half an hour after school. Robert loves the glider thingy (kinda like a zipline) where you hold on and jump over to the other side of the play structure. He does that back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He's been doing fancy tricks with it, too, but fell and smacked his head last Friday. I have experienced few things more terrifying than picking up a sobbing child and watching blood stream down the back of his neck *shudder*. Once I got a good look at the wound, it wasn't so bad.

His newest "smile pose."

Anyway, we're still adjusting to the new routine, and this is just the honeymoon period, but it's been very, very good for all of us. So far. Yay!

Robert typically rides home in the stroller with Matthew. Kindergarten can be exhausting.

Robert wrote this note to his teacher, "Here is a fon for the fon boks. Frum Robert" I helped with some spelling and spacing. I also prepared as many tape strips as he needed.

Alice started 3rd grade. She likes the added responsibilities and freedoms that come with third grade: more homework, choosing who to sit with at lunch (younger grades must sit by classmates), Chrome books in class, and cursive writing. Oh, she loves cursive writing. Surprised? She's energetic, bold, and friendly. This girl completely embraces growing up. She makes it look so easy.

Eight looks great on this little lady.

Alice is also enrolled in a research study that is examining the relationship between physical fitness and cognitive performance. She gets to play active games with her friends for two hours after school...a total party for her. She comes home at dinner time tired, but not worn out. I miss her a little every day, but I don't miss the opportunity for Robert and James to develop a relationship outside of her presence. She's a dominant character, y'know, and it's neat to watch the boys experiment with their own fun and games together.

James, well, is getting used to more attention from me. I hear things like "I like you" and "You're my favorite" and "We're a family!" a lot more. There's so much love popping out of this kid's mouth! I really, really like that. Another benefit of having Alice and Robert in school is that I finally get to talk James through things without interruption. He's learning to cope with frustration and fear a little better. He still picks on Matthew a bit, but we're working on that. I like seeing him just be his casual, comfortable self. At the grocery store today, he was singing, "Fah-woh uh poffet, don't go away."

James checking out a stripey caterpillar he found.

James is taking swim lessons from our favorite swim teacher. It's interesting to watch him with other adults, especially adults asking him to do hard/scary things. He groans and whines a little, but complies pretty easily, and enjoys the praise at the end. Then he's proud of himself for doing something so difficult. I'm thinking we'll start potty training next week...ugh...ack...*sigh*...or never. I hate potty training. And I've never done it with a baby in the house. Will someone please come over and do it for me?

Normally, I require a helmet and shoes. Check out those dimples beneath his eyes!

Matthew is a peach. What more can I say? He enjoys the stroller ride as we drop off and pick up kids every day at school. He's crawling, pulling himself up on things, and eating, eating, eating. He had a well-baby checkup last week. Unfortunately, he's only 25th percentile for length. WHAT?! The doc wasn't too concerned since he's measured 25th-50th percentile for half of his life, and there's a lot of error in the process of stretching an infant as far as he'll go. It's not Matthew's absolute size that concerns me, it's his relative size to his two gigantic brothers. This boy will need to use something other than brute strength to hold his own with those two.

(Shhh. Don't tell anyone he got the last mini popsicle.)

As for me, the school day comes with a little more time and space for other things. I am in that weird spot where I'm looking for something more to do, but many of the things I want to do don't fit well into the little bit of time/energy I have. I've wasted a lot of time just staring at my planner feeling that I should be doing something right now, but what?!