...random experiences, observations and thoughts of my daily life as mommy...past journeys and dreams of journeys yet to be taken creating my life story as i go...


Tuesday, September 7, 2010

sea's first day of kindergarten

last night we laid out her outfit, shoes, socks, backpack and her snack pack. they requested the snack pack be separate and clearly marked so i had sea write it out. she drew a little girl in a green dress complete with the red apple on her dress on the "sea's snacks" note along with blue shoes...i packed sliced apples, walnuts, carrots and mixed berry organic yogurt in a squeeze tube:
perhaps TOO many details here but these "tuesday" underpants match her green dress:
here is the little red apple on her dress (sorry i didn't rotate the photo before uploading):
sea's little bla bla tiger back pack (thank you auntie lisa!) in her favorite color orange:
sea's 2-tier tiffen lunch pail from om goods (thank you auntie char!) packed with an almond butter and raspberry jam sandwich on high protein bread, slices of provolone cheese, oven baked snap peas (her favorite), purple grapes, chocolate and yogurt covered pretzels and dried banana chips:
the tiffen comes with this little pink satchel with a pocket in front for a water bottle (in this case i packed organic pear juice) and comes with a cloth napkin:
sea made a "welcome to school" card for the kids (she started, per usual, to write right to left so the "to" is before the welcome...left handedness? kidness? these are the things she gets to learn in school, right?):
insides she drew herself (on the right) and was going to draw "like 11 children" but ran out of room/energy so here is one other friend:
she wanted to get herself ready for school so here she is trying to put on her own shoes:
and trying to tie them:
and these details were so cute i had to get one more:
her cute back view with pig tails and back pack on:
posing with her brother on the porch:
our whole family...you can see mom and dad are much more anxious than she is:
she wanted one of her by herself (which is of course my favorite shot):
even though we live less than a mile down the street on the SAME street, we drove and then crossed the cross walk to her school:
i liked the "school" sign in the background...lots of parents and children arriving...
sea and mommy in front of the school sign:
sea showing off in front of the sign...yes i DID time the lights to say "school starts":
her friend rosa (in a different kindergarten class) who lives down the street:
ms. baker (her teacher) putting sea's name tag on:
three of the only 6 girls in a classroom of 24 students! yep, 3 boys for every girl or 18 boys!
another classmate, zach:
noah lives just a few houses down but he is in a different kindergarten class and was trying to avoid my photo:
another boy she met in her class:
lining up to follow ms. baker to the classroom:
this is not her classroom but looks very similar:
sea walking straight into the kindergarten room...not looking back...not waving...not kissing us goodbye...i told you this was going to be harder on us than on her!
this is the last shot i tried to take looking into the classrrom...over parents heads and with other children still entering...hand shaking...but sea looked excited and happy to be a part of the mix:
i should add i am almost ready to go pick her up! she gets out at 2:15 but of course i want to be there at 1:45 waiting with camera and video camera in hand...mommy cards to pass out to other parents, meet her classmates, etc...i'm sure i will have a lot more to report through her eyes! looking forward to the stories, drawings, writing it all down word for word as she sees it...

Sunday, September 5, 2010

"uh-nuh-nuh-nuh-down"

we spent a majority of the day at our community pool...sea went "uh-nuh-nuh-nuh-down" as she used to call it...

Saturday, September 4, 2010

B bye chewey

i have so much to say and so little...only 2 days of vacation and sea starts kindergarten..."chewey" (how story pronounces his name) is going to miss her so much...there are so many little things i want to hold on to...these moments of adoring one another and hanging out...

Friday, September 3, 2010

connecting the dots

sea is working on a connect-the-dot book she got as a late bday present...it is a "get ready for school" gift which i normally steered clear of, preferring free play and imagination instead of anything "academic" but, well, school is more or less here and that is where her head is and she is very excited to be doing it...i wanted to take a photo of said dots and her connecting them but that requires finding my camera, taking the shot, uploading the shot, etc. more energy than i have since i've been waking up in the wee 3, 4, 5 o'clock hours with anxiety...sea is DEFINITELY more ready for school than i am...i had all these flash backs to not fitting in, feeling left out, alone, misunderstood...i need to get in touch with these things before i expect them for sea and taint what seems to be a pretty well adjusted entrance into the idea of school...

"mommy, come look at my bug!" she is calling...story is napping...i planned to be cleaning...

she wants to go try and pass the swim test tonight at our community pool...her favorite lifeguard (and possibly first crush?) danny is working so it seems an appropriate time, right before school starts...

"moMMY...come potty with me...i need to do a really big poo poo..." ok, TMI...so maybe i'll leave this post up on my screen and work to complete what should be done, what i want to do (spend every last second absorbing all that sea is into in these last days before school) and a little blogging about it in between...

"moMMY come here, i did the car already...almost...i said in a minute i'm going to be done...mommy...come here..."

"why did leo give this to me, i already know how to do my letters...mommy, please help..."

so back to my philosophizing on what i'm trying to do here...in life...balance what must get done (the practical) with what matters (the meaning) with the every day details (the mundane)...i'm watching sea trace her letters, literally connecting the dots...thinking about how i try so hard to make all the pieces fit together and make sense and sometimes they are just details and somethings they are ALL that matters in that moment...living in the here versus living in the future or the past...showing sea how where her focus should be or better yet that SHE is my focus even as i try to document all this...

my obsessive side is wishing i literally had a photo of her connecting dots...like looking at those dots on this post would help it make more sense or be more perfect or complete...but that would not be life...so i'm going to be ok with this partial post the way i am ok with her rushing through her letters, skipping some, moving on to other things...

she is now showing me her "letters" and trying to copy them (she learned them on her own...writing letters that were in her head instead of looking at something)...this is proving more difficult for her trying to copy them and i'm torn about how i feel about that..

"look!"

story just woke up...cranky...always the conundrum between 4 and 5 whether i should nurse him back to sleep for another cycle or not (which means he'll be up late)...of course i didn't even get the first sink washed in the first bathroom...so i'm off to find something to engage the children with...something they can do together...enjoy their time together...which means i'll probably cave and do starfall and let them "read" to one another...

just remembered a cute song sea probably learned from there "A..ah...aligator...B...Buh...ball...C..cuh...computer" where she sings the name of the letter, it's sound and something that begins with that letter...complete with actions like her typing on a computer...

sea is now tracing shapes and story is saying "MEEM" that he wants a green one...he always draws kitties...now he is singing "naneenaneena neeeee..." teasing his sister he has something she wants...hitting...i better go parent...

at some point before or after this sea was playing "mary had a little lamb" on the piano...we definitely hope to fit piano lessons in though our music teacher friend suggests we wait until she is 6 and can commit to the lessons...

right now sea is "teaching" story by reading his little picture books to him and he is putting up matching animal felts on a felt board for the story "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?"...at one point we were going to make an entire wall in sea's room out of felt because she loved felts so much...

i found myself calling story (sometimes i call him "sonny" like "sunny") but just now i said "2-8-2?" because he likes to count and says those numbers in that order...

now they are back to doing crafts...i told sea we need to finish picking up so we can go to the pool and see if she is can pass the swim test and she said "what do you mean mom, i'm GOING to pass the swim test..."

i'm off to find the smallest swimsuits i can squeeze them into (hard to let go of so much)...

Thursday, September 2, 2010

ice cream social anxiety

sea drew this school bus in art class today. she is on a countdown to school starting on tuesday. we are on our way to the ice cream social to find out what teacher she has, look at her room, her space, meet the other kids and parents...i think i have more anxiety than her...

will report more shortly...

(sea is dictating now) "from sea"

"i like to have a teacher...can i just write my own words, too? please? now? i want to write down my whole family..."

seastorymimidaddymommypoppynameneeskyeayvamichellefred

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

school bus

sea starts kindergarten in 5 days...i hosted an "off to school" party today...details, photos, thoughts and reflections on life before school starts, anxiety about the huge change we are about to experience, etc. will all have to come later as i'm off to bed...here is the sign sea made for the front door (yellow school bus with kids, her and her cat)...i am considering doing nablopomo this month...the theme is ART and i think i will have a lot of it in my life...