First day of school 2010

Well, the boys were probably jet lagged at 6:30 a.m. when I woke them up, but the good news is that school for Will starts 15 minutes later than it did last year, at 7:45 a.m. I drove him over today so we could meet his teacher and take all of his school supplies, Xan went with us and I think the hustle and bustle of the big school overwhelmed him. He stayed pretty close to me, was very quiet and his eyes kept moving around crazily. Will was very quiet, only ate a half of an apple for breakfast, but managed to feel fine by lunch.

This is Will with his teacher, Mrs. Manthei. He was very excited about his first day of school, explaining how the entire class got to vote on the class rules for the year. I love this and think that corporations should do this with their employees more often. Allow the employees to set their guidelines and goals and chances are they will surpass what management's expectations were for them. From what Will told me, this sounds very much like what the third graders did. They also have a class pet, a bearded dragon, named IceFyer (Will thought Ice Flyer would be better, since that's the local hockey team's name), which Will thinks is a lot of fun. He was also impressed that they ate lunch in their classroom (or outside, if the weather wasn't so disgusting) not in the cafeteria like everyone else.


Xan had a bumpy start to his day. He was put out that he did not get to play Wii this morning, like he usually does after Will's bus picks him up, but going to the big kid school was enough to distract him from that disappointment. He knows his teacher, Miss Karen, from the past couple of years, but he is in a different classroom now. He cried a bit and was clingy until I asked him to show Miss Karen his new light-up shoes. I said goodbye and snuck out while he was busy showing off his orange blinkies.



Xan is also having a tough time realizing that Ripley and Marble did not shrink while he was gone. My parents' dog is a 120-pound Old English Mastiff named Jewel, so size is relative when you have been hanging out with her. Yesterday, Xan was sure I had traded in our dogs for smaller ones.
"No, honey, these are the same dogs we have always had."
"I know. But why did they get smaller?"
"They didn't get smaller. You are just used to a bigger dog, so they seem smaller."
"I know. But what happened to the old Ripley and Marble?"
"Nothing. These are the same Ripley and Marble."
"I know. But they got smaller."
"No, they didn't."
"Yes, they did."
OK, fine. New tactic. "Well, they got older when you were gone and they shrank a bit."
"No, they don't look older. Did you trade them for new dogs?"
"No. Now, go take a bath."

The conversation continued out of the blue today, after dinner (which I did, in fact, cook):
Xan, while petting Ripley's head, "Mom, when are they going to grow?"
"They are done growing. This is as big as they get."
Frowning with confusion, "Oh."

We'll see what he comes up with tomorrow.