All my little birdies have left the nest.

 Today is Jadzia's first day at school.

William rode his bike and I held Jadzia's hand on the short walk.  Both Adam and I had our cameras at the ready. When we got there it seemed the whole neighbourhood was on the blacktop.  Three maxed-out kindergarten classes together with their parents and teachers.  Jadzia had the biggest smile on her face.  She's a big girl now!

I gave my daughter hugs and warned her teacher that she was wearing underwear.  It's hard to say who was more excited, but it was probably me.

William's class went inside and the other class did too, but Jadzia's stayed in line at the door and Adam and I watched as her teacher took attendance. A senior kindergartner, Reagan, was chosen to take the attendance binder to the office. Since Reagan is one of Will's friends from last year and from soccer, she knows Jadzia and picked her to be her special helper.  Jadzia wasn't paying attention at first so I called her name, but Adam stopped me and said "you're not her Mom until 3:15." Sigh.

Reagan and Jadzia made an adorable pair, carrying the binder together. Adam and I left after that, but we forgot William's bike, so I was able to snap one last picture of Jadzia, waiting for the trikes to be released from the shed.

On playdates I'm used to seeing her with William's friends, next to them she is still the baby, always a bit shorter, often with her thumb in her mouth.  Today, standing alongside her classmates, she looked like a big kid.  She fit right in, not standing out as the youngest (though based on her birthday she probably is).  She's ready.  She knows her letters and how to print her name. She even knows how to use the washroom when she feels like it. My job here is done.

(Okay, I know that my job is not really done.  I'm still her Mom.  But things are definitely changing.)

Week in review

Today I'm supposed to think back over the past seven days and think of the things that went really well for me. These can be trivial or more life changing.  It was an uneventful week for the most part so mostly trivial then.

1. I've had Jadzia wandering around the house half naked (bottom half) to encourage her to use the potty.  It's worked fairly well.  She goes pee by herself on the toilet.  She's even climbed onto the big toilet by herself and one time she managed to get the nail polish and reward herself by painting her nails. Occasionally she has accidents, and by "accidents" I of course mean deliberately peeing on a piece of furniture just to get a rise out of daddy.

2. I registered Jadzia for junior kindergarten. She wore underwear and went pee in the staff washroom at school. I mentioned to the secretary that she wasn't quite toilet trained and she handed me a pamphlet. The fact that they have such pamphlets for parents of kindergarten students makes me feel so much better about having a stubborn 3-year-old in diapers.

3. My inlaws gave us a new tv.  It is much flatter than our old tv and hangs nicely on the wall. My husband is now obsessed with watching our blu ray movies to take advantage of the good picture quality.  Last night, Avatar.  We still have our ginormous tv (which was also a hand me down from the inlaws) and it still works, so if anyone has the man power to attempt to remove it from our basement, it can be yours.

So that's it.  Now I'm supposed to have good good happy feelings that last for months and months.  Well, I don't feel depressed or anything, so it must be working!

William's First Day of JK

Today was William's first official day of Junior Kindergarten, not including the open house we attended in the summer and the meet the teacher thing we did last week.  Today was a half day, to ease him into the routine I guess, not that he needs that much easing.  I'm the one who needs to get used to school, to become accustomed watching him walk through those blue double doors and then walking away.

 I was so excited to have some time minus one kid now I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I ambitiously tried to fill those few hours he was gone.  I took Jadzia to the store to buy shoes and nail polish. When we go home it was already ten. I had to pick up William at 11:15.  I tried to prepare tonight's dinner (pierogi lasagna) in advance but I barely got the filling done before we had to race out the door.  An explosive poop delayed our progress even more and I found myself rushing to the school (dragging my dog and daughter along).  I didn't want to be the parent who is late on the very first day.

 Luckily we got there with plenty of time (my watch said 11:15, but we still waited a couple minutes). William seemed in good spirits, but when asked about his day he said "I don't remember." I managed to drag out some tidbits. He played with cars, including one Hot Wheels car.  He played with scooters at recess. He didn't eat his whole snack because "he was already full."

Tomorrow, and forever more, William will go to school all the way to 3:15. Maybe I'll get some writing done. Maybe Jadzia will get the mother daughter time she's been missing. Maybe we'll be so busy that we won't notice the hole that he leaves when he's gone.

Meet the Teacher

Today was William's first meeting with his new teacher, Mrs. Leonard.  Though I attended with him, I was quickly shuffled into the corner to fill out forms while William was assessed on his drawing skills, his knowledge of letters and numbers, and his coloured-bear sorting ability.  I think he did well and Mrs. L agreed, but William was disappointed that he only got to "do boring stuff".  Next week, he was promised, there will be playing and there will be other kids.  Man, I wish I was going to junior kindergarten, it sounds like a blast.

After we got home, I tried to discuss the visit with my son.  I couldn't observe everything he and the teacher were doing and was curious. 
"I just don't remember!" William exclaimed.
"But it was only twenty minutes ago," said I.
Shades of years to come.

William goes to kindergarten

Yesterday we took William to the kindergarten open house.  Before we went William put on his new backpack and said "Are we going to school now?"  So after dinner my Mom came to watch Jadzia and the rest of us walked the short distance to William's school.  William was immediately greeted as he came in and given a ziploc bag with stuff in it.  We were told that we had to keep the ziploc and not lose it before September.  Our first test as school parents, I hope we don't fail it!

The kindergarten room was similar to the Early Years, lots of toys, blocks, train sets, colouring sheets, educational doo-dads, etc.  And all over the wall the room also had enough charts, posters, numbers, letters, and artwork to give me ADD.  We met the two kindergarten teachers, but because of bizarre regulations we weren't allowed to know which would actually be teaching him.


William was excited by the magnifying glasses and nature things ("Science!") but he ended up spending most of his time building a totally awesome truck out of lego.  Reading over the info for parents, I saw that William has pretty much already met all the educational goals for JK and SK, so I figure he's going to totally ace this whole school thing. Also, the rest of the kids that were there seemed much smaller, so he'll rule the playground aswell.

When I told William it was time to go, he said "Then why did we even come?" I think he wanted to play all day.  Well good, soon he'll be forced to.

Oh and this morning he asked me "Can we go to school today?" 

So Grown Up

Today I registered my son for junior kindergarten.  The whole process took about an hour and involved gathering together some random forms and identification, dressing everyone in snow pants, walking through the snow at the pace of bundled two-year-old, and filling out a small stack of forms while my children ate crackers and grapes (with a brief break to visit the staff washroom). While we were snacking and form-filling, nutrition break started and my nephew Hunter greeted us in the hall.  The kids got hugs.  I got a "Hi Auntie Jen" and a "Bye Auntie Jen." 

I was all excited about William's passage into manhood, so I got William to tell my husband where we went.  His interpretation: "My Mom just wrote and we ate crackers."  Okay, maybe he'll be more excited when we go to meet his teacher.

Since this is a post about William, I must mention what a wonderful boy he is.  Yesterday we went to one of those indoor play places with his friends.  He helped his sister up and down the equipment, taking her by the hand and gently leading her.  He helped his friend who is a little more timid than he is (William is fearless).  Sometimes he went and got her Mom, sometimes he would help her himself and then tell her Mom: "That's okay, we don't need you now."  I was so proud that he acted so grown-up, so kind, so gentle, so brave. 

He's going to rule Junior Kindergarten!