September 2nd
Charlie had a great first day at kindergarten!!! He was all smiles about going and all smiles when I picked him up. No real surprise there! Alanna woke up at 4:20am this morning crying about her owies hurting, and after she calmed down, I leaned over to check on Charlie. He said to me, "Mom, I have enough energy for the day now." I think he was ready to get up and start getting ready for school at 4:30 this morning! Excited is an understatement.
Matt came with to drop him off, so we all trekked to school as a whole family. I took some pictures at home as well as at school which I'll post at some point. He hung up his backpack, found the spot with his nametag on one of the tables, and settled in. Being a soft start, there were a small handful of other kids coming in with their families which was nice. I didn't feel squeezed out or anything - we were able to take our time with the pictures and helping get him settled before we gave kisses and left him there. He sat down to a box of crayons with his name on it and a worksheet where he was supposed to write his name and draw a picture of himself. He read the worksheet to me with help on two words. I overheard Mrs. Pecorilla telling another student what to do and the student replied with "I don't know how to write my name." Somehow Mrs. Pecorilla will get all the kids on the same page by the end of the year. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad worried that Charlie won't be academically challenged enough this year.
When we picked Charlie up after school, he was still smiling from ear to ear. He ran up, hugged my legs, and promptly started telling me about his day AND asking about our day. He chatted the whole 3 minutes home and during snack time (M&M cookies per his request :) and kept on chatting until nearly 4:00. He had a lot to say about his day and was really great about answering all my questions. At the end of our conversation, he got up from the table, kinda clapped his hands together like a coach would do, and said, "Well, that was my day at kindergarten!" So cute. He named about 5 other kids (out of the 8 total there today - Brody, Taylor, McKenzie, Hunter, Alora) which I was pleasantly surprised about. I wasn't sure if he would ask names or not, but I'm guessing they did some name activities during class with Mrs. Pecorilla. He said they played at 'Recess Park' (aka recess time!) two times, got to go on a school bus for a little lesson on bus safety/behavior, had freezies on the bricks with a man in navy pants and a white shirt (maybe the principal? I'm not sure), saw the music room with "bass xylophones, other xylophones, drums, and maybe cymbals. I don't know, I didn't ask if there were cymbals," said Charlie. He ate all of the lunch I packed him and had a teacher help him open his tupperware container of yogurt I packed for him. Charlie requested a bagel and cream cheese for his first lunch which I gladly sent for him. He made sure to tell me that he licked his spoon before putting it back into his lunch bag so it wouldn't get his lunch bag all sticky. (Is he my son or what?!) He also said that he didn't go to the bathroom all day, but I'm not sure that's the truth or not. Hard to say. He did mention that a boy named Brody was mean to him so that prompted a lot of additional questions and conversation about not needing to be friends with absolutely everyone at school. He kept saying "it's fine, it's fine" about Brody, but as soon as I mentioned that we need to make good decisions about our friends so our friends don't get us into trouble at school, he then seemed to understand that it might be a good idea to play with different kids. I'm not quite sure if he was wanting to play with Brody even after Brody was mean to him, or what. He mentioned that he (Charlie) spent some time sitting on the brick wall near recess park because there were a lot of kids on the playground - too many kids, he said. Sounds like he was a bit overwhelmed at times!
Charlie did say that he was disappointed that he didn't get to write in his notebook today. That is one of the things that he has been the most excited about - his teacher teaching him how to write words - so he was slightly bummed about that. He said that he put his crayons, two glue sticks, and his eraser in his cubby and the rest of his supplies on Mrs. Pecorilla's teacher table with the exception of his composition book which is still in his backpack. Charlie sang a cirlce song to me that he learned today and said that he needs to practice singing the circle song some more at home. He talked about seeing the globe and a map of the US and promptly listed of several states and cities that he saw. Charlie still loves his maps!! He recanted the storybook that Mrs. Pecorilla read to the class today down to some pretty specific details and explained what it means when his teacher blows her whistle one time (play then freeze!) and three times (line up on the white line). He talked about stations in the classroom (Legos, Lincoln Logs, blocks, puzzles) and that when his teacher's timer dings it's time to switch to a new station. I asked him if anyone cried in his class today and he said that one girl did twice. He told me some of the classroom rules and told me that he was a good listener all day long even though some kids weren't. I asked him if he raised his hand before talking and he said, "Oh yeah, yeah, of course I did." :)
When we picked Charlie up, after probably about 3 minutes, he asked Alanna, "How was your doctor's appointment today?" I thought it was super sweet that he remembered that she had an appointment and even bothered to ask about it. He asked her again 20 minutes later while they were elbow deep in their cookies AND asked me, "How's the baby growing, Mom?" "Baby is growing and growing, sweetie!" How long does he think he was gone today?!? He did say in the car on the way home that it was a very, very busy day and was yawning during supper. He asked what we did all day and even asked if Molly behaved today. I told him what we did and then later told Matt that it just felt like someone was missing all day - that something was just off. We went to the doctor appointment and I unbuckled two car seats. We went to the grocery store and I only had one in the cart and one walking beside the cart. I missed seeing Charlie's face in my rearview mirror and his chatter during lunch, at which point I fixed only two plates instead of three. It was strangely quiet around the house as Charlie's presence was definitely missed. I teared up when I kissed Charlie goodbye at school but then didn't cry until the ride home. Alanna was asking me to play with her before we even GOT home, and so though I know it was an adjustment for me, it was an adjustment for Alanna as well. I'm glad we're easing into this school thing though. Charlie has five days off before returning to school the Tuesday after Labor day, at which point it will be his first day with all 18 students in his class. If he weren't so excited about school I think the transition would be much harder!!
Alanna:
Alanna had a dr appointment today and the nurse gave her two stickers; one was Belle and one was Cinderella. I was telling Alanna their names and she said she just wanted to call them Elsa and Anna. She also said that "this girl's dress is off her shoulders. She should pull it up. It must be too big for her." She was referring to Belle's big yellow fancy off-the-shoulder dress. Hahaha! Her burns are doing what they should be doing according to the nurse. We walked away with a new prescription for a different silversomething cream. She has a secondary rash due to the bandages and dressing around her chest/shoulders/neck area; tiny red bumps that she says are itchy. She was scratching tonight and accidentally scratched a bit too low and rubbed one of her blisters open. :( I have been diligently changing her bandages as often as medically suggested (twice a day) as well as every time Alanna requests them to be either changed or rearranged. So far, I'm failing as a nurse. Each morning she comes out with gauze or wrap hanging out of her shirt. I can't get it tight enough to stay put without getting it too tight so it's uncomfortable or cutting off circulation. Her arm burn often ends up too tight. The dressing often slips down off her chest burns. Obviously it doesn't help that she still rolls around and plays quite normally (lots of flopping and flailing). I suppose that's a good and bad thing. I can't expect her to sit perfectly still for the next two weeks until she is either all scabbed over and/or things are significantly healed up. She has mentioned that she is in pain a few times each day and woke up the one time last night in the early morning (4am) when her pain meds had worn off. I thought it would be ok to take off her chest bandage at the end of her bath last night so I could wash the area while she was in the bath, but I was wrong. She about flew through the roof in pain when I dabbed her chest with the bath rag. Even bath water, as tepid as it was last night, was still much too warm for her burns. :( Mom fail. I'm still upset that the whole thing happened in the first place but can finally talk about it without crying. I'm just ready for her to be healed and back to normal - imagine how Alanna feels about it! I'm sure she feels the same.
Julie
So I was at Wal-Mart last night and put a dent in the van. I was pulling into a parking spot between a car on the right and the cart corral on the left. I was keeping my eye on the front left side of the van, making sure that I didn't hit the cart corral, when I hear this nasty scraping sound. I stopped and looked to my right only to see that the front driver's door was open on the parked car. There was a woman sitting in the passenger seat, a child in a car seat in the back, and a man working on the back passenger tail light, but it never dawned on me for a second that I should double check to make sure the car doors were shut. Grr. The guy said, "I didn't think someone would park there." The space was three spaces from the front door. Is it shocking that I wanted to park there? He gave me his information though he doesn't have insurance. A lot of it can be buffed out but there is still a wrinkle in my van door from his car door. I suppose he can only be blamed for some of it (like 75%!) and I probably should have looked, but I just assumed that his door was shut. You know, like the other thousand times a week I park the van. Unless I can see someone loading/unloading kids or bags, I assume that car doors are shut. Am I wrong? Anyway, I'm not sure what I'll even do about it. I imagine it would cost a lot to get it fixed - probably a whole new door or something outrageous - and it doesn't look too bad. I'll just add it to the list of the most recent damage to the van... I ran over a semi tire that was laying across the lane on the interstate during our drive to BC over the weekend, too. Traffic was decently heavy for 10pm and it covered the entire lane. I saw the car in front of me semi-swerve and then saw the car jostle a bit like it ran over something. I thought that the car in front of me blew out a tire and that it was laying across the road, but the tire was much too big for the small compact car I was following. There's now a new dent and a black mark on the bottomish left side of the bumper. Seriously, people. The last few days have been rather problematic!!
I know I'm behind on a few blog posts so I'll try to do more photos and fun stories in the next few posts. :)
