After a super busy week and a traveling weekend, Lex surprised me by going to school happily on Monday morning.  He was eager to show off his new lunch box carrier.  Monday night he went to bed saying he was too tired to go to school on Tuesday, but he woke up this morning and remembered it was library day and went to school.  I thought things were going well, but then he came home with this:

His teacher sends home a chart every day with a smiley, “straight” face, or frowny.  So far he has always gotten a smiley and only twice before has he ever received a “code.”  Codes give the parents more info on why the kids got less than a smiley.  Every day after school I ask if he had a good day and every day he says “Yes, I did!”  One day he even said, “Mom, you don’t have to ask me, I always have a good day.”  Today after school when I asked the usual question he said, “Oh, I don’t think so,” followed quickly by “but don’t look at my chart today.”  Of course I looked!

He had a dentist appointment after school and was very nervous about it.  I think that combined with the busy weekend caught up to him in school.  I was happy he was doing well and made it to school, but perhaps he would have done better taking a day off.  Sigh.  You just never know with kids.

After the dentist we ran a few errands, including a trip to the toy store to buy a birthday present for a party this weekend, and the kids were both super well behaved!  Then we came home, had dinner at 4:30, bath, stories, and bed.  They were both asleep by 6:15pm!  Yay!  Hopefully that helps make tomorrow a better day at school.

Here are two more quick thoughts about Lex. Have I mentioned him lately? He amazes me and amuses me daily.

This morning Eve, as she often does, was being stubborn and refusing to get herself dressed. Sometimes I do it for her and sometimes I leave her alone in the bathroom for hours (ok, more like tens of minutes) until she gets unstubborn and gets herself dressed. This morning, however, Lex offered to get her dressed. She loved the idea. He’s such a fun big brother!

She chose the skirt over pants, and laughed at how high he pulled it up :)

Socks on. (PS. My bathroom looks awful in pictures. I fear these bathroom photos will come back to haunt me in the future.)

Also, his class photos came in today. Yay! I love the class photo and am excited to now be able to put faces with names. Although, I realized that I could name about half of the class and those were the kids he always talks about. When he told me the rest of the names they were all kids he has rarely mentioned. So I guess I’m doing ok on knowing his friends :) Anyway, I ordered the smallest package this year, mostly because I just wanted that class picture, but for some reason they gave me two packets. Slightly different poses. I stopped in at the office on my way out and told them I got two. The lady said “Lucky you!” I asked if I was supposed to choose one and return the other or something and she said, “Nope. If they sent you two, you get to keep two.” Sweet! Both poses are kind of goofy, but that’s Lex. I love him!

School pictures

We had another busy weekend. Rosy came to visit (yay!) and we went apple picking and had dinner with Grandma and other fun stuff. I have photos, but I’m going to post them another time. Right now I want to talk about today.

This morning was different. Our usual waking time, 6am, came and went. I got up at 6:15 (internal alarm, I guess) and Eve got up at 6:30 and joined me for breakfast. Shortly after 7:00 I went upstairs to wake up Lex. I opened the door, turned off the fan, took of his blankets… he kept sleeping. I rubbed his back for a minute (ok, mostly checking to make sure he was still breathing!) and told him it was time to wake up. Then I left. Ten minutes later I went back up and tried to pick him up. He was out hard! I told him it was time to wake up for school. He shook his head a bit and kept sleeping. I gave up. If he was that tired I figured he must need the sleep! I turned the fan back on, closed the door, and left him alone. At 8:30 he got up to use the bathroom, but insisted he was still tired and needed more sleep. At 9:00 he came downstairs and said he was hungry but wanted to go back to bed after breakfast. Weird. As we talked he told me that he didn’t want to go to gym class today (not the first time I’ve heard this!) and therefore wanted to just sleep all day and wake up tomorrow. Of course this didn’t really happen, but I did let him stay home today instead of bringing him to school late.

We had no plans for the day and at one point it occurred to me that it was just like the slower days, just the three of us home, playing all day. They played super well together. I played with them off and on, also getting some exercise and chores done. Lex was very lovey and made love notes to people. Very sweet. I have to figure out what’s going on with gym class, but to be perfectly honest it was really nice having him home today.

Tomorrow is library day and he’s excited for a new book, so I think he’ll be up bright and early :)

Doing a Hidden Pictures together at lunch time.

A love note to Eve

Another love note to Eve

Lex’s school had Open House tonight. We went to Open House for pre-k and it was a disaster. He was hot, tired, and overwhelmed and had a total meltdown in the lobby. People in the parking lot could hear him screaming! Tonight went significantly better! I asked him this weekend if he wanted to go and he said yes. He came home from school today and was super excited about it. He kept bouncing around and telling me about all the things he wanted to show me. He’s so cute! We went tonight and it was great. Saw lots of stuff, saw his adorable little classmates waving to him and saying hi, saw his various rooms (classroom, art room, etc.) and it was fun. He was soooo happy! :)

This is how Eve went to Open House. I found it hysterical. Not sure what impression we left on the general public.

Here is Lex looking for his collage on the wall.

Lex's librarian was showing him where the Encyclopedia Brown books are. She squated down and he assumed the same pose. It made me laugh.

I was really pleased this morning when I dropped Lex off at school and his teacher gave me an unprompted progress report. As I was walking out the door she came over and told me that he has been doing really well in class. She said he participates in everything, including the singing (which he didn’t do in pre-k), and hasn’t had any bad behavior. She said yesterday they were doing a “jack be nimble” game and the kids were all jumping over blocks, but Lex (and another child) opted not to do the jumping part. She said he was very polite about it and waited patiently until the other kids were done. I have been hearing from him each day about how much he loves school and it was really nice to hear from the teacher as well. :)

I read a great blog post called Back to School: 6 Things Your Child’s Teacher Wants You to Know and it made me think that maybe his teacher is just shy. Not sure why I haven’t had this thought before. I figured she was just more concerned with the kids than with the parents, but perhaps she teaches kindergarten because she is more confident around 5yr olds. Perhaps. Either way, he likes her and likes the routines she has, and I am happy she reached out to me this morning.

Thursdays are walk/bike to school day in our district. With that in mind Alan and Lex set off to walk to school. Lex, Eve and I did the walk on Tuesday as well, but I underestimated the time (or underestimated how slow the kids walk!) and we were late for school, so Lex was a little nervous to try it again. They got out the door nice and early (and didn’t have Eve to slow them down) and made it to school right on time. We may try a family walk tomorrow. Leaving very early! :)

Today was the big day! Guess what?! He did awesome! He woke up this morning and announced that he would like to stay home with me today and go to school next week. :) After I explained that things don’t really work that way he decide to be excited for school. Did his morning routine, played, and happily got in the car when it was time to go. He got a bit nervous again when we got to school and he saw all the cars. “Mom, there really are a lot of people here today.” His feet started to drag as we got closer to the classroom, but once we got in he hung up his bag, said good morning to his teacher and answered her questions, and then went to play. No tears, no fuss. I had to go ask for a hug goodbye. It was awesome. I wonder how long it will last :)

First day of school lunch: peanut butter and homemade blueberry jam on homemade whole wheat bread, watermelon, pineapple sunshine muffins, and carrot sticks. His choice and he loved it!

I asked him several times if he would pose for a first day of school picture and each time he politely declined. I decided not to force the issue, so this is what we have instead. I'm pretty sure the girl next to him is his new friend.

Nothing like a good puzzle to start your morning off right!

I was super nervous about the bus, as you know, but I talked to the lady in the office this morning in charge of bus stuff and she (mostly) clarified things for me. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Eve and I went out at 3pm and the bus came, stopped, and dropped off Lex. Aaahhh… survived the first day! :) He apparently had a blast. He told me all the things he did and he had recess and lunch and even made a friend. He said over and over how much fun he had. He’s so sweet! He even asked if he can ride the bus in the morning too… which I’ll have to think about. This week we are sticking to the mommy drop-off routine.

He made it home, safe and sound! Whew!! Doesn't he look so tiny compared to the bus? :)

All the way up the street he kept telling me how much fun he had and how tired he was. I thought we could sit outside and watch the tree guys work, but he wanted nothing more than to go into his house and relax. Can't argue with that.

Lex decided he wanted to finish his lunch for afternoon snack. Works for me! Eve decided she wanted a bento box snack as well, so I threw a few things in her lunch box and she was thrilled.

We spent a lot of the afternoon watching the tree guys through the window. The kids didn't want to go outside (too noisy), but it was pretty cool to watch the work. They will be back tomorrow to finish the job and I'll post pics then.