Emily's Kindergarten Status Update

Kindergarten is a long day!

Kinder continues to exhaust Emily, but so far so good.  Her milestone for this week was getting to check out a library book for the first time and have her first school picture taken.  I think I'm most proud of the fact that she has finally mastered pumping on the swings and I'm no longer needed to get her started!

She's also asking her teacher for homework, because at this point she thinks it's cool.  I'm not even sure how she knows about homework, but we do a little at nights.  She's also good at asking for stories to be read to her and she amazes me at the words she's already starting to read on her own.  The beginning of the year for her was all about color words, Pete the Cat stories, and Brown Bear.  Next week she'll be starting an apple theme.

Art is her favorite special right now, based on the fact she thinks her art teacher is funny.  Visits to the computer lab (she's proud to sit at computer number 11) come in at second place, and considering that one of the two visits so far was a reading test, I thought that was a pretty high honor, so she must really like the games!

Kennedy continues to be the current best friend, and we even had her over for a playdate last Sunday afternoon.

Emily is back to swimming on Tuesdays, she just had her 3rd out of 6 Mindful Movement dance lessons last Friday, and we can hardly wait to get to Swiftsure next Thursday for a riding session!

Fall

This afternoon we went north to enjoy the fall day.  We took short hikes out Chocolate Gulch and Fox Creek to snap some shots.  Luckily, the rain that was expected never came, and the leaves on the aspens were turning some great colors.  

A Job Well Done

The NICU days

2010 NICU reunion

2011 NICU reunion

I just wanted to pause and recognize Nurse Molly.  She was with Emily since her third day in the NICU, and stuck it out with us until Miss Em (as Molly always called her) was discharged on September 8th.  

We loved Nurse Molly, and she was really good at her job.  Amazing.  Fabulous.  The best.  

She was with us on the difficult days.  She took pictures and texted them to me on the days I wasn't there.  She cheered Miss Em on as she started to eat and grow and get close to going home.  

And on September 8th Molly retired.  She says she picked that date because it's her anniversary date, but I think it's because we were secretly her favorites and it was our discharge date!!!  ;)

As happy as I am for her, I'm sad that the little peanuts and their families in the NICU now won't ever have the privilege of Nurse Molly taking care of them.  

And yes, she is short enough to get escorted out on her last day in a pediatric wagon!  

The First Two Weeks

First off, before I forget again, Emily had a well check before school started so that she could get her kinder shots.  She was 44 inches and 44 pounds.  For the little tiny thing that spent so long so far under the growth curve that she wasn't even on it, to be in the 75th percentile for her height actually made me laugh out loud that day.

And it's true, she's one of the tallest in the class.

Things have been going pretty well.  I do hear a lot of "I'm not going" or "I'm too tired" in the mornings as I drag her out of bed to get ready for school.  And the one day I had her wear an I Love Kindergarten shirt, she put it on, read it, and said, "No, I don't!" but she wore it anyway.  I think it's a secret love.

She's been going to work with me, alternating between hanging out in my classroom, or heading to the playground to look for her new friend Kennedy, depending on how chilly it is that particular morning. When I do walk her to class, it's a bit of a hike.  It's about a quarter mile between her room and mine!  And I don't see her at all during the day, even in passing, until I pick her up in the afternoon.

Her schedule afterschool is back to full.  Her attitude about the Y afterschool is changing, especially since they got a pet gecko that the kids take turns tending to.  She's there on Mondays and Wednesdays only now.  Tuesday is back to swimming lessons, Thursdays will soon be riding lessons (starting on October 9th), and she's in a 6 week Mindful Movement class up in Ketchum on Fridays.  For the record, our school kids are bombarded with flyers and pamphlets advertising activities, and after seeing ones for soccer and ballet, she was denied her pleas to attend those as well!

Speaking of school kids getting bombarded, Emily's first fundraiser starts Monday.  Anyone need wrapping paper or chocolates?  ;)

First Day!

I'm pretty sure there wasn't any problems with Emily paying attention today, I think I've heard word for word every direction and rule that Emily's teacher told them today.  And she starts every sentence with "You need to tell your kids this first thing tomorrow."  And then she spent the next hour pretending to be Ms. Barsch.

As expected, the morning was a little rushed and crazy, but I remembered to get a few pictures taken before I left at 7:15.  School starts at 8, so Dad was in charge of getting her there this morning, and that part went very smoothly I've been told.

At the 9:00 assembly I was able to sneak in my first hug and kiss, and I admit I was just as busy watching her listening skills as I was my own 17 students.  She was happy every second.

Then I went to go get her after the dismissal bell.  She was HAPPY till she spotted me, and then the tears flowed (from her, not me...) Turns out her lunchbox was missing, which was strange because I didn't pack her a lunch.  She had decided that she wanted a yogurt and cereal school lunch, but then got confused and thought that her snack that I had packed in her lunchbox was all that she had for lunch.  (For the record, I didn't want to involve the lunchbag at all today, but she really wanted to use the new lunchbag that matches her backpack so very much and I gave in!)  The missing lunchbag was quickly found in the other kindergarten room, that calmed the tears, and it was off to the YMCA afterschool program.

Emily is signed up for the Y program for those days I have meetings or am out of the building, but I really wanted her to go the first couple weeks for the get to know you part.  She was okay until we walked in the room (two doors down from my classroom), and she wasn't happy.  It seemed like a lot of big kids! They only allow 20 in the program with two Y staff to supervise, and they do a pretty good job of planning games, crafts, and activities.  Once I tried to leave, the tears started again, so we went to my classroom and grabbed a snack and drink and chilled for a bit.   Then she was ready to try it again.  More tears, but two older girls were quick to grab her this time, assured me they'd look out for her, offered to color her a picture, and it was then a good-bye Mom, go away send off from Emily.  She stayed about 30 minutes before it was time to head on home with me.

And yes, it was an early bedtime tonight!

Twas the Night Before Kindergarten

I cheated a bit.  Thanks to Pinterest, there were about 20 different shots I wanted to take to document this rite of passage, and I knew in the chaos of the morning I'm going to be lucky if I remember to take any pictures at all!

So we took a few pictures early.

And after a busy day, it was dinner, bath, a few special books to share -

It was off to bed for her last night as a little kid.  Tomorrow she will wake and be a big kid ready for kindergarten. 

After she fell asleep, it almost felt like Christmas Eve.  I assembled a kindercone, a German tradition to send the kids off with a cone filled with treats, school supplies, and small gifts to sweeten the first day. 

And the sign is ready, just in case I do remember to take a picture!

Labor Day Weekend

On Sunday, Emily and I ended up in Twin Falls for the county fair.  Emily went on a lot of rides, enjoyed the petting zoo, watched a K9 police dog demonstration, wandered through the animal barns, and gobbled up a bit of fair food.  

And our holiday Monday wasn't a lazy sit around kind of day, Emily has a pretty busy schedule, ya know!  Rick and Cindy arranged for her to ride in the back of an antique truck with them and toss out candy in Bellevue's Labor Day parade.  The theme was Past, Present, and Future so Emily rode as part of the past with Rick (dressed as Abe Lincoln) in the old truck Cindy was driving.