Posted Saturday, May 30, 2009 - 21:52 by Anonymous
I’ve been getting that scary and nervous end-of-the-school-year feeling. Hayley finished pre-school over a week ago – yes, and graduated with flying colors. I know that Hayley is very well-prepared for kindergarten at this point. She’s already sounding out words and tries to read things we encounter every day (she sounded out “sewer” on a manhole the other day and we got into a long discussion about exactly what that was) and she’s been in Thomas’ class every Tuesday all year. She knows her teacher, the classroom and the classroomroutine, so I have absolutely no worries there. That’s great, right? One less thing.
Thomas has been slipping into his alter-ego in the evenings lately; we call him “Super Crazy-Man.” He gets pretty wild and goofy and then alternately affectionate and loving. I think it has something to do with good weather finally coming to Chicagoland and him being able to spend more time outdoors. Soon, if there’s a day in the eighties, we’ll make our first trip to Uncle Tom’s pool, something the kids are very excited for.
Another thing I’m hoping for this summer is more “play-dates” with a nice family we’ve made friends with over the past school year. Thomas has a classmate who has a little sister that’s Hayley’s age and she actually came over to play one day last week while the boys were at school. This family is non-traditional in that the father stays home with the kids and the mother, who is an international flight attendant, works. They have three kids (their youngest, a girl, is two) and the dad is on his own with all three kids for days at a time while his wife is completely out of the country. Yikes! But here is a rare person of the opposite sex who understands what being a stay-at-homeparent is like, what hard work it really is, and he has a tougher job than most stay-at-homers. So I’m hoping that over the summer, we can swap kids from time to time. I know he feels like he could use a break sometimes, Thomas and Hayley like playing with his two oldest kids, and his two year-old is a doll. She actually really likes other people to hold her, especially Jonathan for some reason. Hopefully they’ll come over more often over the summer and maybe we can go swimming together or something. But I really think it’s important for the kids to have playmates (this other family lives close enough for us to walk to their house) for many reasons, not the least of which is that I can’t play Barbies with Hayley much more before I lose my mind. The fact that she keeps asking me has made it very clear that these kids need friends to play with. Thomas has never had a friend over to play, nor has he been invited to anyone else’s house, so it would be a cool experience for him and I’m wondering how he’ll react. I’m kind of worried that we’d have this boy over to play and that Thomas would play with the PSP the whole time rather than engaging with his friend. Only one way to find out, I guess.
So the end of the year approacheth, along with all of the year-end activities it entails. Thomas’ “graduation” is on June 8 and his last day of school is June 9. He’s still unenthusiastic about first grade, but he’ll meet his teacher and see his new classroom soon which should help. The biggest hurdle will be the whole “eating lunch at school” thing. We have two choices: I can either pack lunch for Thomas everyday or we can purchase the school lunches for him. I’m not what you’d call a “health nut,” but I am a fan of good nutrition and I don’t really have any idea what the school lunch entails. On the other hand, Thomas has announced that he wants me to make pizza for his lunch every day. So I’d be spending every evening making pizza, sticking it in the fridge and putting cold pizza in his lunchbox every morning. We’ve been trying to figure out a sandwich that he would eat, since sandwiches are much more packable and convenient, but we have so far come up clueless. We’ll have to do a lot more thinking about it this summer.
Yes, at this time each year, I begin wondering when I’m going to get the grocery shopping done every week. And even though I didn’t mention it this time, we’re still really excited about Disney World, rest assured. 69 more sleeps until we go.
Twitter
Facebook
By Email
RSS Feed
I’ve been getting that scary and nervous end-of-the-school-year feeling. Hayley finished pre-school over a week ago – yes, and graduated with flying colors. I know that Hayley is very well-prepared for kindergarten at this point. She’s already sounding out words and tries to read things we encounter every day (she sounded out “sewer” on a manhole the other day and we got into a long discussion about exactly what that was) and she’s been in Thomas’ class every Tuesday all year. She knows her teacher, the classroom and the classroom routine, so I have absolutely no worries there. That’s great, right? One less thing.
Thomas has been slipping into his alter-ego in the evenings lately; we call him “Super Crazy-Man.” He gets pretty wild and goofy and then alternately affectionate and loving. I think it has something to do with good weather finally coming to Chicagoland and him being able to spend more time outdoors. Soon, if there’s a day in the eighties, we’ll make our first trip to Uncle Tom’s pool, something the kids are very excited for.
Another thing I’m hoping for this summer is more “play-dates” with a nice family we’ve made friends with over the past school year. Thomas has a classmate who has a little sister that’s Hayley’s age and she actually came over to play one day last week while the boys were at school. This family is non-traditional in that the father stays home with the kids and the mother, who is an international flight attendant, works. They have three kids (their youngest, a girl, is two) and the dad is on his own with all three kids for days at a time while his wife is completely out of the country. Yikes! But here is a rare person of the opposite sex who understands what being a stay-at-home parent is like, what hard work it really is, and he has a tougher job than most stay-at-homers. So I’m hoping that over the summer, we can swap kids from time to time. I know he feels like he could use a break sometimes, Thomas and Hayley like playing with his two oldest kids, and his two year-old is a doll. She actually really likes other people to hold her, especially Jonathan for some reason. Hopefully they’ll come over more often over the summer and maybe we can go swimming together or something. But I really think it’s important for the kids to have playmates (this other family lives close enough for us to walk to their house) for many reasons, not the least of which is that I can’t play Barbies with Hayley much more before I lose my mind. The fact that she keeps asking me has made it very clear that these kids need friends to play with. Thomas has never had a friend over to play, nor has he been invited to anyone else’s house, so it would be a cool experience for him and I’m wondering how he’ll react. I’m kind of worried that we’d have this boy over to play and that Thomas would play with the PSP the whole time rather than engaging with his friend. Only one way to find out, I guess.
So the end of the year approacheth, along with all of the year-end activities it entails. Thomas’ “graduation” is on June 8 and his last day of school is June 9. He’s still unenthusiastic about first grade, but he’ll meet his teacher and see his new classroom soon which should help. The biggest hurdle will be the whole “eating lunch at school” thing. We have two choices: I can either pack lunch for Thomas everyday or we can purchase the school lunches for him. I’m not what you’d call a “health nut,” but I am a fan of good nutrition and I don’t really have any idea what the school lunch entails. On the other hand, Thomas has announced that he wants me to make pizza for his lunch every day. So I’d be spending every evening making pizza, sticking it in the fridge and putting cold pizza in his lunchbox every morning. We’ve been trying to figure out a sandwich that he would eat, since sandwiches are much more packable and convenient, but we have so far come up clueless. We’ll have to do a lot more thinking about it this summer.
Yes, at this time each year, I begin wondering when I’m going to get the grocery shopping done every week. And even though I didn’t mention it this time, we’re still really excited about Disney World, rest assured. 69 more sleeps until we go.