A new bus rider.

Zack decided to take the school bus home yesterday. This is a big step since he was asked to take it but then backed out twice when I said he could if he wanted to. All this new and strange stuff happening has thrown him off a bit.

So the other night he asked if he could take the bus home from school. I said he could and that I would write a note to his teacher to make sure she knew. Yesterday we get into his classroom, he handed the teacher the note and she wrote it on the bus board. Then he tells me, "I don't think I want to take the bus today mom." I did not want him to back out since I thought he would be ready for it, so I told him that he already had given the note to his teacher and she wrote it on the board so he had to take it home and we would see how well he did. He had no choice but to accept it. What he did not know was I also let the teacher know that if he got upset or couldn't go through with it, to just give me a call and I would be there in a few minutes to pick him up.
No phone call was received so at the appropriate time I walked up to the school bus stop and I waited patiently for him. The bus was 5 minutes late (per the written schedule). Finally I see it coming down the road, it stops, 6 kids stand up and start walking down the aisle. I did not see Zack's blond head. Then I heard the bus driver call his name, up from the a seat in the middle of the bus I see his blond head pop up. He walks to the front of the bus and I hear her ask him who that is. He tells her 'that's my mom.' He gets off the bus and immediately tells me he got to sit next to a big kid, then he proceeds to tell me how 'the bus lady' did not know where he lived so she had to ask Coach J (the P.E. teacher) where he lived. It is unclear if she asked Zack where he lives. So of course because of all this the bus was held up which made it 5 minutes late.

When he got off the bus, he had a piece of paper that he handed to me and told me I have to write the stuff down that 'the bus lady' needs. Now I wouldn't mind so much but I filled out a bus form when I signed him up for Kindergarten (I was not sure he would be on a bus but I filled it out as a just in case). That form was turned into the main office at the school. I filled out a second form on the first day of school. That form was turned into the teacher. I talked with the teacher last week letting her know I would send in a note when he was ready to ride the bus. I talked with the bus driver during open house, now I have yet another form to fill out so they have the information. All this filling out forms seems a bit ridiculous. It just goes to show that one department does not talk to the other.

I am so grateful that he did not get upset with the whole fiasco of them not knowing where to drop him off.

This morning I asked him if he wanted to take the bus to school today or if he wanted to drive. He chose the bus! My little boy is growing up. We walked to the bus stop, he chatted with some of the girls that ride the bus also. When the bus got there, he turned to me and waved then got on like he has been doing it for years. When the bus pulled away I saw him sitting in the middle seat next to the window. He started waving and continued until I could not see him anymore.

I miss him!

Another one bites the dust.

Zack lost another tooth. This is the second one this month. It has been wiggly for days, and I guess he got tired of wiggling it because he asked me several times today if I would try to pull it out for him. I did try but couldn't get a good enough grasp and I did not want to hurt him so I told him he could just keep playing with it. At dinner he was getting irritated with it because it kept getting in his way. After dinner he asked again if I would just pull it out, I tried but quite frankly I could not get a good enough grasp to pull it very hard. He reached in and twisted and yanked and darn if that tooth didn't come out, shocking him that he did it himself.

He was a bit worried because there was a bit of blood on the tooth and he was afraid it was not good enough for the tooth fairy.

He is sitting at the table as I write this. He is writing a letter to the tooth fairy to let her know he pulled it out himself and that there is blood on it.

Here is the kicker. The adult tooth has already popped through. It was coming through right behind the wiggly tooth for several days now. It is not coming in straight like his baby teeth were. There is definitely braces in his future which makes me so sad because he had beautiful teeth.

Mr. Meteorologist

This morning we were watching the news and the weather report to see what was happening with hurricane Irene and how much damage was already being reported. Well Zack started asking questions about a hurricane so I being the meteorologist that I am (cough, choke, who am I kidding) tried answering him to the best of my ability.

I did have to reassure him that we were not in the path of the storm that it was staying near the beaches, but that we would get some rain and it would be breezy out today because of the storm. Later on after leaving the house we were in the car with the windows rolled down. His hair was flying every which way and he chimes in from the backseat "we should call this a breezy storm, it is blowing all over."

A while later at soccer practice the gusts picked up a bit and had the kids trying really hard to keep the ball in control because it kept blowing away. One gust was pretty strong and it nearly knocked a few of the little ones off their feet, so Zack yells to me "Hey Mom this hurricane is getting windier, it almost blew me away." One of the other parents got a kick out of that and he called Zack a little version of the local meteorologist. I told him he watches the weather every morning before school so it would not surprise me one bit if he became one.

Later on it finally sunk in Zack's head what I said about the hurricane staying by the beaches. He asked if Ma was at her beach house and if the hurricane made any damage to her house. I assured him Ma had left the beach house and he could call her tomorrow and ask her if her beach house was alright. When he asked why he could not call her then, I let him know the storm had not actually gotten close to Ma's house yet so she would not know if there was any damage.

This kid of mine is like a sponge when it comes to scientific things. He did tell me today his favorite center in his classroom was the science center.

He is kindergarten bound.

Well the big day came yesterday. My youngest is no longer a baby. Yes that is right, he started kindergarten... not that he really wanted to.

I woke him up to get ready for school. He did his normal morning routine which he hurried through because he wanted to watch some television before he had to go. We do have a rule in our house that you may watch some television only if you do everything to get ready first. This happened after he tried telling me his belly hurt. Poor kid I feel for you but you have to go to school.

We made sure to take some pictures, (you know for mommy when she is so old and senile and can not remember much of the past).
He had his fake smile on for the first few then the fake smiles diminished.

When we got out of the car, one of the little boys from his pre-k class pulled in right next to us. I think it helped Zack a lot seeing a familiar face. They walked into the school together. When we got to Zack's classroom he would not go in unless Kris or I went in first. I guess he was afraid we would just leave.

He did well in the classroom, learning where to put his things like his backpack and where the lunchboxes go and where to go to get his name tag. He sat at his desk which had crayons and a paper to color already on it. When I said goodbye he sort of choked up and quietly in my ear asked me not to leave. I told him I would be back in just a few hours to pick him up. His eyes looked like he would cry any minute so I quickly reminded him that he drew a picture for his teacher and it was still in his backpack. I helped him get it out and said goodbye to him and walked out. I will admit I wanted to cry but I held the tears in. Shortly after me, Kris walked out. When I looked back he was giving his teacher the picture so we walked out to the car.
It went so much better than I expected it would.

Now I will tell you when we walked into his classroom, I did a double take. His teacher had multiplied! Sure did, that woman cloned herself! There were two of them! She did introduce the clone as her sister who was there to help her out for the first day. I bet it shocked the kids...hey maybe that is why Zack did not cry?

Later when I picked Zack up, I parked across the street and walked over to the school (much easier than dealing with the long line of cars in the pick up line). When I got closer I had to laugh, all the car riders where sitting outside in front of the school waiting for their names to be called. I saw Zack sitting with three of his friends from pre-k. I thought it was a mini pre-k reunion. He told me about all the friends from pre-k that he saw during the day. He couldn't for the life of him remember any of the kids names from his class this year. He told me he was not happy because the teacher thought he did not know how to use the cafeteria. I had to explain to him that she was just making sure all the kids knew how to use it because not all the kids went to pre-k last year so some of them needed to learn. I asked him if he could forgive her for that, he said he thought so! lol. He was happy to tell me they went on the blue and yellow playground today and they went to P.E. which means gym class!

When we got home he told me all about Ms. T's helper this morning. "Mom she had the same color hair, the same eyes color, the same nose, she talked like Ms. T and she even had the same face and everything!"

He may have even mentioned once or thirty times how he did not cry not one tear! Needless to say he got his Chicken nuggets, fries and apple pie last night!

My not so happy little boy!

Before the big day.

A few days ago we went to meet the teacher night at Zack's school. The poor child barely spoke with his teacher or the assistant. He begged me to ask them certain questions and rather than making him feel more anxious I did ask for him. Was it the right thing to do? I think so, rather than make him more nervous and upset, he was able to feel slightly more comfortable by hearing the answers.

What was so important?
Take a second and think the way a 5 year old would.
The most pressing question was "Do we have to take naps?" Of course he was happy to hear that nap time is a thing of the past.
He needed to know if it is alright to bring potato chips for snack time, Of course he was happy to hear the word yes (even though he does not get chips very often). He was not allowed to bring anything like that to preschool last year so this is a big thing to him.
And finally, it was really important to him to know if they get to play on both playgrounds or do they just have one to play on like in preschool. He gave a nod when the teacher told him that in kindergarten the teacher gets to choose which playground to let the kids play on that day. So there you have it, the important information a 5 year needs to know before starting such a big day in his life.

Once he received his answers he was ready to leave. It did not matter that mom and dad still needed questions answered. All I heard was I want to go home, lets leave, we can leave now, I don't want to be here. Sigh.

Yesterday, Kindergarten Eve was a weird day. When talking with my mom on the phone he was telling her that he was excited to be going to school. Shortly after he was done talking with her, he turned to me and said "Mom I am afraid to go to school." What he is afraid of is beyond me, he could not/would not tell me. He was telling people what they wanted to hear and not what he was really feeling. He was hyper all day but as it turned to evening he became super hyper. He has hyper tendency's but last night he was beyond his normal which I know means he is really anxious about something. He did not want to go to bed last night, he tried stalling. While I was reading his nightly book, he was asking questions about different pictures in the book, much more than normal. While I was singing his nightly songs, he was stopping me to ask about something from his video game. Finally I got him to calm down and go to sleep.

During the day I did make a deal with him. I told him if there was no crying and no fussiness at school I would make him whatever he wanted for dinner. What do you think he chose? Quick revert back to being a 5 year old. Chicken nuggets, french fries and apple pie with ice cream, of course.

Chirp, chirp chirp.

Just so you know, there is a cricket in my house that is driving me NUTS! I figured out where the darn thing is. Right now it is residing in the wall behind the refrigerator so there is nothing I can do about it. I think I am going to go insane if this thing does not move on sooner rather than later.

"Eyes in my mouth."

Z: "Ouch"

Me: "What's wrong?"

Z: "I just bit my tooth again."

Me: "Why do you keep doing that, Silly."

Z: "Mom, do I look like I have eyes in my mouth?"

Me: "Let me see... nope, no eyes in there."

Z: "Well if I have no eyes in my mouth how can I see where I am biting?"

He just lost a tooth two weeks ago, he is so close to loosing another. I wonder if he will let me pull it out today.
The spot where he lost a tooth two weeks ago already has a tooth coming in. This tooth that is so darn close to coming out has a tooth popping through just behind it already. I see braces in our future.

Time Out.

A short conversation that Zack and I had yesterday.

Zack: "Wow"

Me: "What's up?"

Zack: "Do you realize how long it has been?"

Me: "Do I realize how long what has been?"

Zack: "How long it has been since I was in time out?"

Me: "Yep it has been a while, I guess it is because you have been listening more and not misbehaving as much as you used to, BUT if you would like I can put you in time out now."

Zack: 'Noooooo thanks."


Not more than 1 hour later he was sent to his room for misbehaving. Some things I guess will never change.

Dentures and the 5 year old.

Let me start this post by saying seriously this kid of mine has been watching to much television lately.
Commercials are his favorite part, he can recite more commercials than anyone, including my niece who as a child would watch television just for commercials. (Yes Melissa, I can remember turning the television on with you and flipping the channels just to find commercials). When he wants something he recites the commercials so I know all about the products and why we should have it.

This morning Zack being the ever independent that he is becoming made his own breakfast. After sitting at the table and eating, he put his plate in the sink and went to the bathroom to wash his face and hands. Just as he was getting to the bathroom door he yelled "Hey Mom guess what? I can feel a new tooth coming in at the end of my dentures!"

So apparently my independent 5 year old now has dentures. (No wonder he dislikes going to the dentist. lol) I am guessing he has seen one to many commercials involving denture cream!

That was quick.

On August 9, the tooth fairy paid a visit to our house. Zack had a wiggling tooth and at dinner time he was showing me just how far it would bend. I asked him if I could touch it, after a tiny bit of anxiety, he caved in and let me touch it. What he did not realize was the second I touched the tooth, I pulled it out. I had taken it out and set it on the table before he realized it was even out. Although it is his second tooth that he has lost, it is the first one he has lost naturally. The first one was knocked out in a playground accident.

We wrote a note to the tooth fairy and she left one in return telling him that his tooth was going to look good in her collection and to continue brushing and flossing his teeth. She also left a gold coin and 4 quarters. He was excited when he woke up the next morning to see what she left.

This evening he came up to me and said "Mom put your fingernail where my tooth was". I did not have to, I could already see the new tooth is already coming in. Seems pretty quick to me but then again what do I know.