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Kindergarten: so far, so good. Henry doesn't complain about not wanting to go, he happily boards the school bus, loves sporting his blue backpack (Which was his second choice; first choice was an utterly flamboyant Tinkerbell backpack that had actual green, glittery wings protruding from the back. He's got a thing for the 'bell.), eats all of his lunch and most of his snack, comes home tired, plays for a while, refuses to eat dinner, plays some more, then goes to bed.

Dave and I have also been handling it pretty well. We haven't had any emotional meltdowns over our baby going to school, mostly because he seems so ready for it. We do have conversations over who gets to go pick him up at the bus stop and who gets to stay home while Holly naps. Very civil, "No, no, I insist, *you* go!" types of conversations; whoever wins gleefully heads out the door.

What I was most concerned about was being able to get our act together in the morning. We're not used to getting up at 6:30AM. Dave and I figured out what each of us should be doing in order to get to the bus on time: Dave gets the kids up and dressed while I get breakfast together and make Henry's lunch. Mostly it's been going well, although I will confess that after blearily boiling some oatmeal this morning, I spiked Henry's bowl with cumin instead of cinnamon. Nothing like the smell of armpit to snap you to attention. Henry's loving getting back to his bento box lunches. He doesn't really eat much of a variety of foods, so everyday he gets sandwiches cut into shapes, sliced apple, and milk. For snack I send him in with some kind of carb and a Babybel cheese wheel.

It's been nice getting to spend some uninterrupted time with Holly. It's reinforced what I've always suspected: she's a sweet little cutie-pie. I have a feeling that next week I'll be telling you that she's learned to walk. Dave put it best last night: for her walking isn't a question of ability, it's more a question of her deciding to go ahead and do it.

Posted by Jenn at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've been inundated with fruit flies the last several days. I set out a small bowl of apple cider vinegar spiked with dash of dish soap to take care of the problem. It's working beautifully. It's also making my entire house smell like feet. It's not nice.

Today is Henry's birthday. His party was on Saturday. His Grandparents waited until yesterday to give him his presents. Today he's getting ours, plus a few from his Aunts and Uncle, as well as his Grammy and Grandpa's. He'll also be getting another cake. That's three days of continuous celebration. It's making me seriously reconsider how I go about celebrating my own birthday.

Thursday morning the young man will climb aboard a bus and head off into the oblivion that is the local school system where he'll be knocking around for the next 13 years. We've been so busy with traveling and celebrating birthdays that I haven't yet had a chance to work myself up into a proper froth over it. Henry had to fill out a questionnaire for his teacher, which we brought with us to his open house last week. She was inquiring after preferred nicknames, interests, anxieties, etc. One of the questions was "This year I'd like to learn _______." Henry's response was "how to play the drums". I had a sneaking suspicion that was not the answer she was necessarily looking for (or maybe it was, who am I to say?), but it was so gosh-darned sincere, I didn't bait him into falsehoods. I looked at the other kids' sheets and they all said "how to read". Dare to be different, kiddo.

Posted by Jenn at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Dave's been hassling me about posting an entry but I haven't really been ready to. We've been getting back into the swing of things here on the home-front since coming back from Florida, the most pressing thing being prepping for Henry's birthday party, which mostly entails regaining control over our backyard which was taken over by pumpkin vines and cherry tomato plants while we were away. Naturally it's been raining a lot since we've come home, so we haven't been able to get as much done back there as we've wanted. It's been a blessing in disguise because I've been able to focus a lot of my energy on reading, knitting, and catching up on sleep. Henry's been laying low, too. Although he has made it very clear he would like to move to Orlando, he's a homebody like I am, so while he enjoys the spurts of craziness, he really likes the apres-crazy downtime as well.

My parents rolled into town early Friday afternoon. We kicked around the 'burg, then H², my Dad, and I went to the pool while Dave and my mom wrangled some food. The next morning they set off again, heading for Western MA to visit with my Grandma and Aunt. We were sad to see them go. Even though we were home for most of the week before they arrived, it still felt a bit like we were on vacation with their visit looming on the horizon. Their leaving sealed the lid on the proverbial coffin. Henry was a bit out of sorts all day, although he would never admit to missing anything other than Phineas and Ferb and his drumset.

Fortunately, the young man has set his sites a little further down the road to happier thoughts, such as his birthday, and then all too soon after that, his first day of kindergarten. I'm just going to sit here and continue stuffing my maw full of Smarties...

Posted by Jenn at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)