Another First

Today:  a substitute teacher!

It turns out that with very little fanfare Boylee's teacher got married over the weekend. She's on a mini-honeymoon, so today they have a sub.  I wonder how that's going to turn out?

School is closed tomorrow, then on Wednesday Ms. Hoeschen will be back with a new name: Mrs. Richards.

And The Green Treat Was...

Grapes. Not cabbage.  Poor Boylee.  But he was happy anyway.

Yet Another Reason Why I Love My Boy

Each week Boylee's class has a "color of the week" that culminates in Fun Friday where the kids wear the appropriate color and the teacher brings an edible treat that also ties in to the color. For the red week it was strawberries.  Last week was blue  and they had blueberries.  

This week it's green, and this morning in the car Boylee was speculating about what treat Ms. Hoeschen might bring to class. Then his eyes lit up with excitement as he thought of a treat so thrilling it filled him with joy:  "CABBAGE!"

I'll find out when I pick him up.  Somehow I don't think it's going to be cabbage. But if it is, he may be the only kid in class who's excited.

Dialogue of the Day

Boylee:  Mama, school is too short.

Mama:  Really? I thought you said school is too long.

Boylee:  Oh, I meant school is too long.

Mama:  Oh.

Boylee:  No, I meant school is too close.

Mama:  Too close?

Boylee:  Too close.

Mama:  Too close? 

Boylee:  Too close for me to play with my toys in the car.

Mama:  Well how about if I drive slowly?

Boylee:  Good. 

He's Got the Music in Him

Boylee's always been into music, and he's always gotten into all sorts of music, not just actual "music for kids."  Right now, this is his favorite song:

Quote of the Day

(While on the Santa Monica bike path this weekend.)

Boylee:  Do you think you can ever change my style?

Daddy:  Uh, no.

Boylee:  Good, because you can never change my style.

We have no idea where that came from, but we know he's right.

Busted!

From the start of kindergarten, Boylee figured out that if it's lunchtime and you say you don't have any food left in your lunchbox, the kind ladies at the cafeteria will give you stuff to eat for free.  

Before I go on, let me just say that it's one nice thing about LAUSD -- they seem very concerned about whether or not students are eating enough, because so many come from low income families.  They make a big show out of giving every parent an application for the reduced-cost meal program, whether you want it or not -- so no one has to feel ashamed by asking for it -- and they make sure that the tickets the kids use to buy food are all the same, so no one can tell by looking at a kid's ticket whether or not they're receiving a free lunch.  And even if you're paying the full fare, it's ridiculously cheap: 40c for breakfast and $1 for lunch. 

I'm not defending the cafeteria food, but it's obviously improved since I was in school. I would never actually eat any of that shit, but that's another story. The kids seem to love it, especially the chocolate milk.  And I have noticed that many kids eat breakfast at the cafeteria, and it seems as if most kids also have cafe food for lunch.  

Boylee has been very interested in the cafeteria food, and we decided he could have it once a week, so we've been discussing the menu each week so he can pick the day that appeals most. So far it seems as if pepperoni pizza and spaghetti & meatballs are the favorites. (I shudder to think about the content of that pepperoni and meatballs -- non-organic doesn't even begin to describe it, I bet.)

Anyway, all of the kids eat together in the cafeteria, even when they're just dining from their own lunch boxes, and that is how the innocent little Boylee stumbled upon his scheme. And apparently he's been working his scam several days a week without my knowledge.  

Well, today I received the bill.  Seems that those sympathetic lunch ladies are only sympathetic so far, and they've counted up his meals and dunned me for the total.  Boylee's teacher is the one who let me know -- and she sort of gently inquired about whether or not I've been sending enough food for him.  I know that I have -- it's been one of my most obsessed-over issues -- and he's always come home with leftovers.  He's just eaten the cookie, and whatever else appealed, then turned his big blue eyes on the lunch ladies to get the chocolate milk and the other treats.  

So tomorrow morning I have to settle up with the ladies.  And maybe I should pin a note on the boy's shirt: Please do not feed the Boylee.

Should I Be Scared?

Today Boylee and his classmates started their weekly arts class -- this ten-week cycle is theater -- and the first thing they did was...mime.  

Success!

It's a day to remember here at Chez Boylee because...breakfast only took 20 minutes!  So we got to play before school!  That is big, big news, and made the boy very happy.  So happy that he forgot to whine about not being able to watch Curious George on PBS Kids this morning. (That was part of our old preschool routine.)  

I had offered, at one point, to videotape the PBS morning block so Isaac could watch some of it after school, but that was before I realized that I couldn't get the VCR to record the proper channel.   I think it has something to do with the fact that PBS is on channel 79 here and I can't get the VCR to set itself to record anything above channel 70.  The VCR is a little old, so maybe that's it. 

No cable, no satellite, no Tivo, no digital tuner on our TV -- yes, we are the people all those commercials are aimed at -- you know, the ones that remind us that after February our TVs just won't work anymore unless we buy decoder boxes.  I'm pissed about it, but that's another story.

Aunt Laura

...went to an Alaska Women Against Palin rally today and took some great pictures: http://laurainak.blogspot.com   

Curriculum

Boylee's teacher has sent home her first newsletter, and here are some of the highlights:

Mondays -- P.E. (currently karate) and library time

Wednesdays -- Arts Prototype classes -- right now, theater

Thursdays -- Music and P.E. again

The P.E. sessions are run by an outside company and paid for by the PTA's fundraising.

And  here are the topics they're focusing on in the classroom:  rhyming words and activities; reading friends' names; learning about school; number patterns; sorting; and the beginning stages of proper letter formation. 

They've also been focusing on the color red this week, culminating in "Fun Friday" where all the kids were asked to wear red.  This is the outfit Boylee started with:

However he ended up changing his clothes before going to school, so the only red thing left was a red sweatshirt.

Updates

Two quick things.

1:  Boylee has discovered tetherball, and it's a big hit.

2.  We got up early today...and breakfast took 40 minutes. I did talk to him about needing to eat faster if he wanted playtime before school.  He said, "I like to eat slow." I guess that's that. 

The Reason, Discovered

One thing that I've been a bit baffled by during these first few days of kindergarten is that we always seem to be rushing in the mornings. I know that is probably a typical feeling for families getting ready for school, but I thought I'd got it covered.  I mean, I'm only trying to get one kid out the door.  I make his lunch the night before.  His backpack and homework are always ready to go, waiting at the front door.  Getting him dressed is no hassle at all because unlike so many of his pals (boys and girls), Boylee has almost no interest in what he's wearing, which means he will accept any clothing combo at all. (To those who noted his tie dye/camo combo on Day 1? My idea, not his.) Getting myself dressed is no hassle, since I'm not heading off to work or anything.  Breakfast doesn't require a lot of cooking, and then all we have to do is wash face and brush teeth.  It seems that we should easily be able to get up, get moving and get out the door within 50 minutes. Right?

Except each morning we've been rushing at the last minute. I hate rushing, personally. And I especially hate being a Rushed Mom who has to keep saying things like, "Hurry, hurry!" and, "Let's go!"  

This morning I figured out the culprit:  breakfast.  It's not that it's a complicated affair -- this morning Boylee had a tortilla, watermelon and yogurt.  It's that it takes soooo long -- 30 minutes -- for him to eat!  He's not doing anything else at the time -- we're not watching TV or anything like that. It's just that he takes a bite...tells me something about school yesterday... takes a bite... tells me about what he wants to do after school... takes a bite... sings a little song to himself. It takes forever!!  This morning I watched it unfold, one eye on the clock, one eye on him. I literally couldn't believe that we sat down to eat at 7:15 and he wasn't done until 7:45.  And when school starts at 8:06 (8:06? 8:06!), and we still have to do the personal hygiene part, get in the car, drive to school, and deal with the crazy parking, that's just not going to work.  

But I actually don't want to lose any of it -- all that talking he does is precious and is probably the very most important part of the morning --  so we will just have to wake up a bit earlier.  Luckily I am getting the hang of the alarm clock. 

Idiot Moms

They're everywhere.  Even at our new school. 

Today I got into a little fender bender in the parking lot. More specifically, my car was hit by a woman driving a GIANT white SUV -- it had a George W. bumper sticker on it so I should have known then and there what kind of person she is.  Basically, while I was getting Boylee out of the car, she backed into the front of my car. I watched it slowly happen, and tried yelling to get her attention, but she didn't hear me.  Luckily she was 

only going 2 miles an hour so there was no damage.  Boylee was a little surprised about the whole thing, and I had to take a moment to show that my car has a bumper, the other car has a bumper, and they're designed to bump together if necessary.

If that was the end of the story, then it would just be a normal experience and nothing worth talking about. But here's what happened afterwards:  The woman didn't get out of her car, and in fact kept her car in reverse as if she expected me to move my parked car so that she could navigate out of her parking spot.  (Maybe this is all a little difficult to picture, but just understand that our tiny school is located in an old Hollywood Hills neighborhood, and thus there is no street parking, and parents have to park on the schoolyard in order to drop off their kids. Even at a small school like ours, this leads to a lot of cars in a small space. The school has devised a parking & drop off system, and the system works. All you have to do is follow directions, watch out for orange cones, and act NORMAL.)

So the lady didn't get out of her car to check the damage or see if we were okay.  She's just kept sitting there in reverse as if I'm going to move, which I'm not going to do, seeing as I am parked according to the school's rules.  And I'm dropping off my kid. And I'm walking him to the classroom. So not only am I not going to move my car now, I'm not going to be moving it for about ten minutes.

The woman finally gets out of her car and says, in a I'm-dumb-so-I'll-just-smile-and-that-makes-everything-okay way, "I didn't realize that you were parked behind me."  I just smiled back and showed her that she could easily exit her parking spot by pulling forward into the big, empty area right in front of where she had parked, instead of backing into my car.  She acted like this was a revelation.

It took me about five minutes to realize the true idiocy of this situation. She backed her car into mine because she didn't realize anyone was parked behind her.  Which means she didn't look in her rear-view mirror at all -- in a crowded parking area full of kids.  

Idiot moms are everywhere.

Another Thing Boylee Does Not Like To Do

When I was pregnant and I pictured my life as a mom, one thing I thought I'd be doing a lot of was pushing my child on a swing.  In actuality that has hardly ever happened. He did not liked to be pushed on a swing when he was little. Now that he's big enough to swing himself, he'll give it a go every now and then, but not like some of his other friends who seem that they could swing for hours.

The Evidence

(read the post below for an explanation)

Homework!

Today was the big day for homework, and as the kids exited the classroom the teacher could be heard reminding them to both do the homework and bring it back tomorrow.  

The good -- it was quite easy, in terms of Boylee's intellectual level.  Mostly it involved tracing some lines on paper -- quite clearly a pre-writing exercise, and Boylee can write all the capital letters already.

The bad -- it involved one of Boylee's least-favorite pastimes:  coloring.  I don't know what it is about that kid, but he has never, ever liked coloring.  Even when we've had superhero coloring books, he's just not interested. And while he likes to draw and paint and do all sorts of other art, the act of coloring in a black & white drawing has never held much appeal for him. So he got a worksheet today that asked him to look at some pictures and use a red crayon to color in anything that is red in real life.  The fire engine...the heart...etc.  It took him about a quarter of a second to determine what should be colored.  Then it took him ten miserable minutes to execute the coloring.  

The ugly -- and then there was another  item to be colored -- a picture of a train with animals on it.  He just made that one all red, too, because apparently coloring is such a pain in the ass that changing crayons just makes it that much worse.

Crisis in Progress!

Scott and Boylee went to the L.A. County Fair today. I didn't go, for the following reasons: it's 1,000 degrees out; they didn't think of going till 12:30-ish, meaning it was only going to get hotter; and it's the opening weekend and I don't want to be in that stinky hot crowd.  

But that meant that I was home to receive a phone call from a stranger. A stranger who has found Scott's lost cell phone...at the fair.  She's only going to be there for 2 more hours.  If he calls me before then, I can get the two of them to find each other at the fair. If not, he'll have to drive to her house tomorrow to pick it up. And of course the fair draws people from all over. She lives in FONTANA.  Scott will be making that drive alone, because it will be 10,000 degrees in Fontana tomorrow.

Crisis Averted!

I forgot to set my alarm clock last night -- this doesn't surprise me, since I have basically never used my alarm since I left the working world when the boy was born.  But that meant I overslept this morning. Thankfully I woke with a start at 7am and got everything in gear. I would have been mightily embarrassed to have been late for the 2nd day of school.  Guess this whole school thing is going to take a lot of getting used to -- but not for Scott. This morning he had a 5am call, so he was up at 4 o'clock.

The Best Part...

...today they did karate!

And visited the library, and a resource room. And then at lunchtime my darling boy convinced them that he didn't want what was in his lunchbox and so they gave him a cafeteria lunch, including chocolate milk AND orange juice.  First day of school and he's already pulling a con.

No homework today, but lots of forms to fill out. 

(He didn't confess this part 'till bedtime: they gave him pizza, too.)

First Day of School (really)

There were a lot of firsts this morning.  

For one thing, I actually had to wake Boylee up. That has hardly ever happened in our lives so far -- mostly because he wakes up pretty early, but also because we did two years of preschool that started at 1pm, and another year that started at 9am.  We just rarely needed to get up and moving quickly.  That has definitely changed with

 the start of kindergarten.  Today he was still snoozing at 7:10, and when school starts at 8:06 (8:06? Yes, 8:06.) that's not going to work.

Then I had to make sure that he actually ate a full breakfast.  That's never been a very big deal, because we've either just been hanging out having fun and he 

could have a snack later, or he's been at preschool, which only ran from 9am to 12pm and featured not just "lunch time," but "snack time," too.  He had a lot to say about his eating preferences this morning, and  he ended up with a scrambled egg, a handful of tamari almonds, a plum and a tortilla.  Not a bad way to start the day, I guess.

Then we...went...to...school.  Real school. All day school. With a backpack and everything. With a lunch box. And a sweatshirt, just in case. (That's probably just in case of mommy psychosis, because it's going to be in the 90s I just realized.)

Believe it or not, no one cried. Not even me.

Tonight another first:  first homework!

First Day of School (sorta)

Today was technically the first day of school. But it wasn't a "real" day -- we showed up at the proper time (8:06.  8:06? Why not 8:05? I'm not exactly sure.) and we met Isaac's teacher, Ms. Hoeschen.  We hung out in her classroom for about an hour, while she filled us parents in on the relevant details -- where to drop off our children in the morning, where to pick up in the afternoon, etc. -- and then we left.  So in all it was only about 1 hour. 

And I forgot my camera.  But here's a pic from a few days ago:   

Today's highlight was Isaac's devising a way to remember how to pronounce Ms. Hoeschen's name:  "It rhymes with potion."

Tomorrow is the big challenge.  That's when I actually wave goodbye and walk away as he strolls confidently into the classroom...or sobs uncontrollably.  Or he strides confidently and then I sob uncontrollably.