Sure, I already know that five pennies equals a nickle, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn as much as Big did this very first week of college prep.
Lesson #1: I’m already embarrassing. When I ran to meet Big as his bus arrived at school the first morning (you didn’t think I just waved goodbye and went home, did you?), he took note that his other buddies’ moms weren’t there (though they were, they just didn’t run as fast as I did), and he said, “Um, can you leave now? Iloveyoubye.”
Lesson #2: Carpooling is not driving your car to the pool. And a yard duty is like a park ranger, only instead of picking up after you, he makes you clean up your own stuff.
Lesson #3: Bullies don’t need a ramping-up period. Big’s already been knocked down (for no apparent reason) on the playground. Good news is he just got back up and told his friend who empathized. He also told me that kid obviously didn’t know that it wasn’t nice to treat people like that. (Watch out kid in the Cal shirt, Big’s mom isn’t as sweet as he is…)
Lesson #4: The playground is also a new place to explore the world of boyish fun and bad guys. And, like only a little foodie could, Big came home pretending to shoot frosting out of his imaginary gun.
Lesson #5: While we, as parents, spend time encouraging our kids to go to school and make new friends, we don’t always heed our own advice. When I arrived at Back-to-School Night a bit early, at each of the lunch tables outside the classrooms there was one parent—sitting alone, staring at their phones.
Lesson #6: A CD of ocean sounds isn’t calming to two little boys who need a good night’s sleep. It’s hysterical. Apparently in their world it sounds like a toilet flushing.
Lesson #7: After a week of constant crying (him and me) and not eating (only him), it takes a $15 copay and hauling three kids to the doctor’s for an hour to get an official diagnosis. Are you ready for this? Little is a 2-year-old middle child. (Who happens to be depressed that his big brother started kindergarten.) And there’s no cure. (Though the doc seemed hopeful that preschool will help.)
Lesson #8: Note to self: Before Little goes off to kindergarten, be sure to work with him on a list of things he might enjoy journaling about. You know, one that makes me look better than Big’s first entry: “I love watching TV.”
While I probably could have come up with 10 lessons, the TV is calling. (Ah, how I love fall.) Hope your back-to-school season has been full of fun and new knowledge!
Photo from Flickr by dhyamato.
You are such a great mom…worrying about Big’s psyche, while a whole lot of moms are busy planning
what to do with their free time while the kids at school…i.e.THE ONE WITH THE GUY IN THE CAL SHIRT!
I never did like Cal… (Sorry Cal friends.)
I LOVE this comment above! So true and hysterical! I will need to read this again next year before B goes off to Kindergarten. Thanks for the warnings. I’m having a hard enough time with her last year of preschool starting up soon. Not to mention, I’ll be missing it! Super sad day for me. Brian gets to do open house and first day with her. Not that she’ll notice. These days, it’s daddy that’s the coolest parent. :).
Enjoy the preschool excitement…Little starts next week too. And, by the way, Daddy is ALWAYS the coolest in our house.
hmmm… I just used the “ocean sounds” button on my alarm clock to drown out the sounds of the boys while I got some extra shut eye on Saturday morning… never thought of using it to get THEM to sleep more… hmmmm…
And good for Big for not letting”Cal” get to him!!!
Yeah, well, I’m guessing your boys would feel the same way about the ocean sounds as my boys. You might want to use it to cheer them up on a rough day instead!