A Week of Kindergarten

Maggie has officially started Kindergarten and I have survived. She has thrived.

It seems that Maggie was more than ready for this new endeavour and I couldn't be more proud. She was so full of excitement on the first day. So much so that she wanted to draw a picture for her teacher -- Time allowed and so I permitted. It was so cute to see her jump to her feet when her teacher called her name. Picture in hand she raced to the teacher and announced she did the picture especially for her. Laughter filled the room and Maggie was not fazed one bit. She was all heart and full of so much enthusiasm I think some atoms must have been bursting.

I asked her about her classmates today and she told me, "Well, I don't like Zackery. He's a nice boy but he keeps asking questions. Bad questions and I don't like that. It's distracting for me." I asked her what she meant by bad questions and she told me, "He asks questions when Ms Walsh is talking and I don't like that. I want to hear what Ms Walsh is saying. It's bad to ask questions when Ms. Walsh is talking." She told me all this with such poise, I was grateful that I had to keep my eyes on the road. It would have been too hard not to crack a smile had I been looking at her.

All in all, I quite like the new routine. The mornings have been more intimate with Maggie as I try to make an effort to eat breakfast with her and its been lovely to see her race to me when school lets out. Its really pretty darn cool actually. As a fellow blogger said in my comments from my previous post, "The world has opened up for her." Its also been wonderful to have Ryan all to myself, and I think he's enjoying the extra attention too. His smile melts my heart everytime.

I've learned a thing of two myself this past week. I've gotten really good at parallel parking. An absolute necessity when dropping off your kindergartner. It takes at least fifty requests from me to get Maggie moving in the morning --get your shoes and socks on Maggie, brush your hair, make your bed, pack your backpack, bla bla bla....its quite exhausting getting out the door. The paperwork Maggie is sent home with is insurmountable and I seriously need to get organized with it. I practically have a redwood growing out of my kitchen counter. I've also learned that lunch gets boring pretty quick and that its quite normal for the average five year old to return home with half the contents untouched yet famished from hunger. Wonders will never cease.