Mommy & Henry Day

About 3 weeks ago, I asked Henry if he wanted to have a "Henry & Mommy Day."  I told him I'd take the afternoon off from work and we'd do something special, just the 2 of us, before school really got started.  He was very excited.  I suggested Carowinds, but he actually wanted to go to the Lazy 5 Ranch.... which I thought was a great idea and we chose today to be our special day.

However, we've had about 6+ inches of rain in the last 24 hours and for fear of getting rained on, not to mention all the mud that must be at Lazy 5, I decided we needed to do something indoors.  The movies would have been good, but there is nothing out now for him to see.  Chuck E. Cheese was NOT an option & neither was Monkey Joe's as I wanted this to be something we could do together.  So I suggested Discovery Place and Henry was all game for that.

But this morning, I really didn't want to drive uptown, so I suggested bowling.  Well, Henry just thought that was the best idea ever!  We bowled FOUR GAMES... honestly I thought it would never end!

This last picture is of the scoreboard after our first game - we tied at 91.  How sad is that?  I got better & won the 2nd game (but seriously, only by like 20 points).  For fear of a total breakdown, I let him win the 3rd, which believe me, is really hard to do with those bumpers!!!!

The First Day, Part Two

Since I was able to work from home today, I picked Henry up at 4pm... I just couldn't wait any longer.  He was in the gym, playing basketball... well, trying to make a basket really.  He ran over to me and said, "This was the best day ever.  I love kindergarten!"  I asked him to tell me all about it, but he said to wait until we got to the car.

When we got to the car, I asked him what his favorite thing was about KDG and he said, "Playing Basketball."  Given that was not exactly school, I asked what he liked about Mrs. Fentress's class.  He told me how he played with blocks, listened for noises in his ear, read letters, wrote his name and then said, "But Mommy, there was one really bad part.... we had to read the lunch menu into a microphone in front of everyone, but I was too nervous so I just showed them pictures."

Now, I'm not exactly sure how true that is or what all was involved with that last one.  I know that today was more of an evaluation day - they wanted to see where the kids were in their reading, writing, etc... and it would appear that they had some interesting ways of testing the kids... why they didn't just ask the parents, I do not know!  :)

So today was a total success and to top off the night, I asked Henry if he wanted to snuggle in my bed.  He said that if I snuggled with him, "it would make his dreams come true."  So at 7:55pm, I brought him up to my bed and was brushing my teeth before I joined him... by the time I was done, he was out cold... sound asleep... completely exhausted by his first day of school!

The First Day

Well, we did it!  I am so proud of Henry - he was SO EXCITED this morning!!!  His alarm went off at 6:10am, he immediately got out of bed, turned it off, went to the bathroom, got dressed & brushed his teeth.  Then we came downstairs, he had his vitamin, a bagel w/ cream cheese and at 6:45 told me he was ready to go to school... I had to hold him off though - mostly for a few pictures.  I really wanted to take my camera to school, but I didn't want to embarrass the boy!

When we got in the car, he said, "Mommy, this is going to be the best day ever."  The car pool drop off line was a bit longer than I expected, but as long as we leave the house by 7am, we will be totally fine.  I walked him in of course and honestly, I think he was eager for me to leave.  He put his lunch box & water bottle in his cubby and hung up his back-pack and then went to a table with dry erase markers and sat down with the only other child there.  He looked at me and said, "Bye."

And OK, I admit - my eyes filled up with tears, but I quickly said good-bye and walked out (using the side door of the school for my even quicker exit).  Oh sure, I'm crying a bit now, but I'll be OK... and I've never been more proud of my son!

My First Lunch

I just packed my very first school lunch:  1/2 peanut butter sandwich, string cheese, mandarin orange fruit cup, 2 Oreos, goldfish and Scooby snacks... clearly I had no idea what Henry would feel like eating, so I just threw in a little of everything.  I can't believe tomorrow is my son's first day of school!  I think I'm actually kind of excited... I mean as I sit to type this out, I feel like crying, but that is only the first time today, so that's kind of good, right?

I've tried to prep Henry for the next week - how tomorrow will work, when I'll drop him off, when I'll pick him up, when he'll go back to School 4, what day would be his last there, etc.  I talked to him about homework and how he'd be expected to read something every day... that's what they told us anyway.  He said, "Mommy, what if we read the story about the pig and the spider?"  I thought he meant If You Give a Pig a Pancake but no, he meant Charlotte's Web.  So we sat down and took turns reading the first chapter... first he read a page & then I read a page... and when we were done, he told me he loved chapter books.  

I found myself wondering how many 5 year olds could read Charlotte's Web?  That's got to be a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level, don't you think?  I mean, clearly this child is ready for school... I just hope I still am at 7:00 tomorrow morning!

Cable Man!

Henry's had a cough for the better part of 2 weeks.  I stayed home with him on Thursday and Brad stayed home with him on Friday.  We were sure it was nothing, but since school is starting on Tuesday, Brad took him to the doctor... turns out he either has Walking Pneumonia or Bronchitis.  Now, I'm a tad concerned that they couldn't narrow that down a bit, but the antibiotic they prescribed works for both, so I guess that is OK.

So while Brad was home on Friday, he made a call to our local cable company... turns out we were lacking an upgrade to our system and for $5 more per month, we got a few more channels - mostly HD ones!  It's the little things that excite us around here.  

Henry's new favorite channel is the NFL network - they were replaying an old Buffalo Bill game... here are pics of him watching that.

Then today, while Henry & Daddy went to see The Clone Wars, Kyra and I came across HDNet which was televising a recent Rick Springfield concert!!!!  Here she is enjoying some mini muffins and watching Rick in action!

Future Olympians?

A few months ago, we enrolled Kyra in Gymnastics at her school.  Every Thursday, Ms. Leah takes her & her best bud Samantha to the 1/2 hour class.  Kyra LOVES it and will happily do a split for anyone.

One month ago, we enrolled Henry in Karate.  He absolutely loves it and I swear, you can not be in a bad mood after watching him attempt various karate kicks!  I never laughed so hard as I did when I took him to his first class!  Although last Monday's class was pretty entertaining as they were asked to do jumping jacks, push ups and sit ups.

So last night both kids wanted to show off for us.  Since Kyra was the ring leader in showing us her skills, Henry attempted to do gymnastics as well, thus no karate moves.  This morning I asked Brad to simply download last night's clips, but he decided to play around with the editing feature on our computer instead and TWO HOURS later, he created a little movie which I was unable to fully download, so he had to shorten up quite a bit.  I would have preferred him to edit out my motherly comments, but he did not.  Oh well.  Enjoy!!

Caliente

So I have this habit of filling the bathtub with water that is not as cool as it should be... mostly because I turn the water on & walk away to do other things while it fills up.  So the kiddies have gotten in to the habit of checking the water before getting in.  The other day, they dipped their toes in the water & Kyra said, "Oh, caliente." 

Editor's Note:  Caliente means "warm" in Spanish although I've likely not spelled it correctly here.

Open House

Yesterday was Open House at JV Washam Elementary.  We got to see Henry's new classroom, meet his teacher, and even went to the school store and bought him a "JV Washam Hawk" t-shirt.  Mrs. Fentress was very nice!  Henry was a little shy in her classroom, but he loved walking around the school.  We took him to the cafeteria, the gym, the library and we even did a dry run and asked him to try to find his class from the car pool drop off area.  He did great!  What's even more exciting is that one of the boys in Henry's Kindergarten went to his daycare at Gateway!  I don't know if the boys will remember each other but it is somehow comforting to know that a familiar face will be in his class!

Oddly, Mrs. Fentress suggested that I NOT walk Henry in next Tuesday.  I'm guessing with 19 years of teaching experience, she's seen enough blubbering mothers to know that the first day of school is a tough one.  I very nicely told her that I did not think it would be possible for me to not do so.

After we left, Henry said that he loved his new school!  When I asked him what his favorite thing about it was, he said, "Everything!"  I took this as a very good sign and while I'm still semi-scared for next Tuesday, I'm slightly less worried about it.

Last Beach Trip of the Year

We spent most of last week at the Beach... our last trip for the year now that Henry is starting school in 2 weeks.  We did the usual - went to the ocean, swam in the pool, went to the Aquarium, Brad and Henry went to a baseball game, we all played mini golf, went shopping and of course, ate!!  We forgot to juice up the camera before the trip so on Saturday, I took as many pictures as possible before the battery died.  Enjoy!

Naps Be Gone

So yesterday, I realized that despite what they say at School, Kyra NO LONGER naps!!  This is a rather harsh reality to accept... Henry took naps until he was at least 4 and even now, if he is tired & we tell him he has to have quiet time, he will fall asleep.

Kyra on the other hand, fights a nap like I've never seen!  I told her she had to have quiet time, gave her books, turned on her music and out I went.  I checked on her 3 times.  The first time, she was changing her shoes; the second time, she was putting on a pair of pink sweat pants; and the third time, she wasn't even in her room, but in the play room, rolling up my yoga mat.  At that point, I gave up & we played Play-Doh.

Henry did take a nap yesterday because we had tickets to the Panther's preseason football game (courtesy of a co-worker of mine).  He had a BLAST!!  It was all he could talk about last night and this morning!  Brad let him get his face painted, which he was very excited about and this morning, when he woke up, he said, "Mommy, let's talk about the football game... did you see me on TV?"

Friday Night at Our House

Watching opening ceremony of Olympics.

Eating peanuts.

Playing Trouble.

Could we be having any more fun?

24 Hours Free

Yesterday at 11am, I dropped Henry & Kyra off at Ammy & Paw Paw's so that Brad and I could enjoy roughly 24 hours free of children.... we don't do this often at all, but last night we had tickets to see Cheap Trick, Heart & Journey!  Yes, I did sort of force my husband to attend this 80's band reunion of sorts, but even he admitted that it was a great show - even if it took us a while to optically accept the new lead singer of Journey!

We met the kids at 11am - Brad and I got there first.  When I saw them enter, I stood up & waved so they could see us.  My children came RUNNING to me, squealing with delight!!  Henry jumped up in my arms & was hugging me so tight!  Kyra was grabbing at my leg as she continued to squeal.  I heard my father in law tell the waitress, "We only had them for one night" and I think I heard my mother in law tell her, "You'd think we were beating them..."

Now, we've left our kids with them before - not often... maybe 2-3 times a year and normally, I call about every 2-3 hours.  The last 24 hours was really a break through for me because I never called once!  I'm so proud of myself.... it's only taken 5 years!

The Very Tired Mommy

So remember I said how Henry and I snuggle on Fridays & Saturdays?  It sounds cute right?  Hmmm - in theory only I think.  

You do learn a lot about your child when you sleep with them.  I now know that Henry grinds his teeth in his sleep and between the hours of 2 and 4:30am, he tosses and turns like a ship at sea.  How do I know this?  Because when he tosses & turns, he kicks or hits my back, neck, legs, ribs, arms and/or stomach!  At 4:45am, I wised up and put a pillow between us.  At 5:30, he woke and tried to move the pillow... and at 5:50, we heard the sound of tiny flip-flops and Kyra joined us.

She crawled into bed & immediately said, "Henry, let's go in de payroom."  To which he responded, "We have to wait until morning."  Morning apparently came 10 minutes later and this is how I found them a few minutes ago...

The Letter

It is hard to believe that it is already August 1st.  August 1st is a special day for me.  It is my anniversary at Bank of America (13 years now).  It is the anniversary of my very first "get together" with Brad - I went to his house in NoDa for a cook-out and then we went to Gallery Crawl... we've been together ever since; 12 years now.  Yikes!  And then today I got the Letter and another anniversary was born.

Today we got the Letter from JV Washam Elementary notifying us that Henry's first day of Kindergarten would be Tuesday, August 26 and that his teacher would be Mrs. Fentress.  I was so excited!!  We've been getting all kinds of literature from the School - information about school lunches, volunteer opportunities, PTA, but this was the Letter we were waiting for because this confirmed it all!

But as the afternoon wore on, I got kind of sad... it is just so hard to believe that my first born child is already going to Kindergarten.  Where has the time gone?  I mean, I can so clearly remember the first time I ever held him, like it was yesterday... I was in the recovery room, crying over the dimple in his chin.  My dad & brother have the exact same dimple in their chin.  And here I am 5 years later, crying over a Letter.  

This has been the greatest 5 years of my life and it is so hard to believe that it is going to change in 25 days... change in a way that I don't think I fully understand yet.  Hopefully, the tears I'm shedding now will save my son any embarrassment for tears I may shed on the 26th.  The countdown has begun.