On the Road to Kindergarten

Bam's preschool graduation was yesterday. How a year flies! We have dearly loved Miss Alisha and her awesome preschool. Bam has learned so much and has truly blossomed. No more is he super-psyched to stay home all day when it's not a Bam school day. I didn't even have to force him into the carpool car every day. And after the graduation program wherein much was said about school being over, about them being ready for kindergarten and about Miss Alisha going to miss seeing them at school each day, Bam asked me about school on Monday, and when he was reminded that he's done until kindergarten, he wanted to know if everyone in his class is done too, or just him. Graduation really meant only saying his poems in front of parents and having treats with friends in a funny hat with a cool shirt.

And now we have a dozen or so weeks of summer vacation and Bam will be a full fledged, full day kindergartener. He is so excited, planning and re-planning what his back pack and lunch box will look like. He is growing in other ways too. For the last several weeks, blankie has not gone to preschool, not even in the usual place in the bottom of his back pack (never to be taken out, but there just in case) and travel blankie was lost with not even a whimper of concern. Hopefully blankie will never go to kindergarten and Bam will be able to focus on the wonder of learning, the excitement of eating lunch in the cafeteria, and the status of walking to school with the boys instead of staying home with mom and M. And M and I? Who knows what we will do with ourselves? Only time will tell!

Sorting

This mother's day we spent with family in Utah celebrating 1) a baptism, 2) a birth 3) my mom's birthday and 4) Mother's Day. Busy weekend with family. Lovely.

Some of my children gave me their prepared gifts before we left town, some brought theirs along. CW didn't realize the confluence of the weekend until we got to Utah and then he was rather upset to not have his gift ready. ("upset to not have his gift" of course meaning that he blamed me for leaving his school backpack at home, obviously on purpose). When we returned, he immediately fished out his gift to give to me. It was a book filled with pictures and statements about me, the sort where there is obvious teacher prodding as to subject matter but the actual blank filling is up to the child.

CW likes it best when I take him to Golden Spoon, he said. I've only ever done so once. It was part of my grand attempt at spending quality time with my children over spring break. They each got to pick something to do with just me. CW likes Golden Spoon because the spoons are gold and you get to put whichever topping you want on top. That time with him was golden for me, with each of my children because we were alone and I could actually listen to one person at a time. Sometimes, I feel like the meaningful things I try to do with and for my children are lost in the clamor for and denial of toys and big ticket items (trips to Hawaii, gaming systems I will never buy, phones and other electronic devices that are not age appropriate, no matter what their friends' parents say). Sometimes the simple things that my children need and want are lost in the capital I important things that I am trying to teach them. Sometimes it helps to have a little folded pink booklet with pictures to help me sort out the difference and to give me hope that they are also sorting effectively and that, somehow, when and where it really matters, we are arriving at the same place.



(This is M at Panera for her outing, where we shared an M&M cookie and where she told me when I was allowed to take bites. Then we went to the park)

Not Easter

This is my brood in their Easter finery, not on Easter because that was a bad head day for me, but on the morning of H's baptism in Utah in front of my sweet Aunt Deb's house (who always lets us stay with her). I gave up trying for a more sedate pose. Really, this was the most sedate I could get and still avoid someone running into the street.