Here's what happened today. Lizzie bit Anna on the leg for no reason that could be determined (she didn't leave marks, though). Anna starts crying. I come around the corner, Lizzie admits to biting Anna, so I tell her that is bad and she needs to go to time out. Lizze starts sobbing like she is the one injured, saying "I need a hug!" Then Anna gives Lizzie a hug, and the crying stops immediately, and they are ready to play together again. Except for the fact that Lizzie still has to have her punishment.
Then, 15 minutes later, when they are both upstairs playing, Anna starts sobbing. Lizzie hit her over the head with a toy multiple times. Anna says it was a Barbie, Lizzie says she didn't hit her with a Barbie... "I hit her wit dat!" (pointing at another toy on the floor). Well, at least she doesn't lie. So she got sent to her room, where she cried and cried and cried. And then I caught Anna trying to let her out of her room.
So either Anna is a big softie, or Lizzie has totally figured out how to work her sister. Or maybe it's both, but either way, I know I have to watch that sneaky little one.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Where the streets have the same name: The story of Anna's first day of school
After orientation last Thursday our countdown to Kindergarten continued. My goal was to start getting Anna up earlier in the mornings to prepare her for her 6am wakeup call once school started. You can guess how well I managed that. Saturday morning I did manage to get up a little earlier than normal, but only because we were heading to Charlottesville for the first UVA football game of the season. So our countdown got sidetracked by football over the weekend, but on Monday we tried it again.
Monday was semi-successful. We got up earlier, but not early enough. We still made the walk to the bus stop so Anna could feel what the walk was like, but we would have been 20 minutes late.
Tuesday was the big day! We got up on time and got going. Anna looked so cute in the outfit she picked out for her first day at school. The only downside was that it was pouring down rain, so the whole family drove to the bus stop. We even got there early! And then we waited and waited... and waited... and waited. I thought it was curious that only one other car pulled up. I thought maybe all the other parents were driving their kids to school, considering that it was pouring cats and dogs.
Then Seth asked me, where did they say the bus stop was again? The corner of Ridgefield Green and Flat Branch Dr, I said, right where we are. Then Seth asked, doesn't another Ridgefield Green connect to Flat Branch at the bottom of the hill? And I knew he was right. And I panicked, but then I thought, no no, I have the right spot. That is until the bus drove by us heading out of the neighborhood, without stopping. And I silently cursed whoever it is that feels multiple streets in the same neighborhood should have the same name. At least there was one other parent who had done the same thing, so I didn't feel like a total idiot.
So Anna was driven to school on her first day. At first she was terrified that because we'd missed the bus, she wouldn't get to go to school, but I reassured her that was definitely not the case :) When we got there, it seemed that no other parent but me and the mother in the van in front of me had read the instructions for dropping off your child. These instructions specifically state that the school has a serious lack of parking, therefore you shouldn't attempt to park and walk your child in, you need to pull up to the front and let them out. Nope, everyone wanted to park, then would realize there was no parking where they were trying to go, then they would attempt to reverse, which all lead to a big traffic jam at the entrance, and the whole time I thought Anna might just jump out of the van so she could hurry up and get there already.
We finally made it to the entrance. They were collecting the kids in a group as they were dropped off, then teachers and older kids were leading them to their classrooms. Anna didn't even look back at the van, she was ready to go. And there she went, my big five year old, ready to take on the world.
I got her off the bus in the afternoon (which was quite a bit late), and the first thing she asked me was if she could go back tomorrow. Of course, she barely remembered anything about her day when I first asked her, although later it came out they'd seen a play about how you behave in the cafeteria. However, the main thing she remembered about the play was that she didn't get to sit next to her friend from preschool. At bedtime she remembered that the boy who sits next to her is named Martin. I'm chalking it up to first day overload, but hopefully she remembers more than that as the school year goes on!
Today, day #2, she was up on time, ate breakfast, dressed, and we actually made it to the correct intersection for her bus. She waved at me from the window after she got on, smiling and blowing me a kiss. There goes my big girl. Not on the first day, but today is the day I got teary-eyed watching her go.
Monday was semi-successful. We got up earlier, but not early enough. We still made the walk to the bus stop so Anna could feel what the walk was like, but we would have been 20 minutes late.
Tuesday was the big day! We got up on time and got going. Anna looked so cute in the outfit she picked out for her first day at school. The only downside was that it was pouring down rain, so the whole family drove to the bus stop. We even got there early! And then we waited and waited... and waited... and waited. I thought it was curious that only one other car pulled up. I thought maybe all the other parents were driving their kids to school, considering that it was pouring cats and dogs.
Then Seth asked me, where did they say the bus stop was again? The corner of Ridgefield Green and Flat Branch Dr, I said, right where we are. Then Seth asked, doesn't another Ridgefield Green connect to Flat Branch at the bottom of the hill? And I knew he was right. And I panicked, but then I thought, no no, I have the right spot. That is until the bus drove by us heading out of the neighborhood, without stopping. And I silently cursed whoever it is that feels multiple streets in the same neighborhood should have the same name. At least there was one other parent who had done the same thing, so I didn't feel like a total idiot.
So Anna was driven to school on her first day. At first she was terrified that because we'd missed the bus, she wouldn't get to go to school, but I reassured her that was definitely not the case :) When we got there, it seemed that no other parent but me and the mother in the van in front of me had read the instructions for dropping off your child. These instructions specifically state that the school has a serious lack of parking, therefore you shouldn't attempt to park and walk your child in, you need to pull up to the front and let them out. Nope, everyone wanted to park, then would realize there was no parking where they were trying to go, then they would attempt to reverse, which all lead to a big traffic jam at the entrance, and the whole time I thought Anna might just jump out of the van so she could hurry up and get there already.
We finally made it to the entrance. They were collecting the kids in a group as they were dropped off, then teachers and older kids were leading them to their classrooms. Anna didn't even look back at the van, she was ready to go. And there she went, my big five year old, ready to take on the world.
I got her off the bus in the afternoon (which was quite a bit late), and the first thing she asked me was if she could go back tomorrow. Of course, she barely remembered anything about her day when I first asked her, although later it came out they'd seen a play about how you behave in the cafeteria. However, the main thing she remembered about the play was that she didn't get to sit next to her friend from preschool. At bedtime she remembered that the boy who sits next to her is named Martin. I'm chalking it up to first day overload, but hopefully she remembers more than that as the school year goes on!
Today, day #2, she was up on time, ate breakfast, dressed, and we actually made it to the correct intersection for her bus. She waved at me from the window after she got on, smiling and blowing me a kiss. There goes my big girl. Not on the first day, but today is the day I got teary-eyed watching her go.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Countdown to Kindergarten
Today was Anna's Kindergarten orientation. She was so excited all morning, she kept asking me what time we were going to leave even though I'd told her a million times it wasn't until after lunch. To help pass the time we wrote her name on all of her school supplies. I'm so excited for her, I'm glad she's excited about school, about riding the bus, about making new friends.
It dawned on me last week that I'd forgotten how public schools work on a different timetable and level of efficiency than the business world I used to work in. My first reminder of this fact was when I attempted to find out the time of the orientation. We had learned it was going to be on September 1 back when I registered Anna, but I didn't know the time. I called on Wednesday (8 days before orientation). I was told information was going to be mailed out that Friday (less than one week before orientation). I got the information over the phone after explaining we were going to be out of town until the day before orientation, and then had to remind myself not to be surprised that the information wasn't mailed out earlier.
I mention the above because it prepared me for all the paperwork we received during orientation. I have written our name, address, and phone number more times than I can count. I have written out the same four emergency contacts at least three times (not including the two times I wrote them during Anna's registration in the spring). I had a blank Student Information Form from Anna's teacher asking for the same information that is on the official, pre-filled Student Information Form that is part of her file. It almost (but not quite) makes me want to leave home and go back to work to create process efficiencies for the school system so that I don't have to suffer through this every school year going forward.
Now, don't think that I am not a fan of public schools. I am a product of the public education system. My father worked in public schools for 30 years. I know many other wonderful people who work in the public school system. I have the utmost respect for dedicated teachers and administrators who work hard to teach our children. But the inefficient systems that public schools use to handle their records and paperwork? Those I can definitely do without!
But I digress. Back to Anna's orientation. She was disappointed to learn that her friend from daycare is in another class, but she was excited to learn that she is going to have two teachers. Her teacher just had a baby and is going to be on maternity leave until January, so she will have one teacher the first half of the year, and another teacher the second half. She found her name tag on her table all by herself. She was enchanted by the playground equipment, and ecstatic about having a library at the school where she can check out books. She was intrigued by the "learning cottages" (aka trailers) that have popped up at the school while renovations on certain buildings are going on. And then she didn't want to leave when it was time to go.
And I can't believe it is time for her to go. In five days she will be getting on that big yellow bus (at the glorious time of 6:53am) and heading off on her new adventure. And she will probably handle it better than I will :)
It dawned on me last week that I'd forgotten how public schools work on a different timetable and level of efficiency than the business world I used to work in. My first reminder of this fact was when I attempted to find out the time of the orientation. We had learned it was going to be on September 1 back when I registered Anna, but I didn't know the time. I called on Wednesday (8 days before orientation). I was told information was going to be mailed out that Friday (less than one week before orientation). I got the information over the phone after explaining we were going to be out of town until the day before orientation, and then had to remind myself not to be surprised that the information wasn't mailed out earlier.
I mention the above because it prepared me for all the paperwork we received during orientation. I have written our name, address, and phone number more times than I can count. I have written out the same four emergency contacts at least three times (not including the two times I wrote them during Anna's registration in the spring). I had a blank Student Information Form from Anna's teacher asking for the same information that is on the official, pre-filled Student Information Form that is part of her file. It almost (but not quite) makes me want to leave home and go back to work to create process efficiencies for the school system so that I don't have to suffer through this every school year going forward.
Now, don't think that I am not a fan of public schools. I am a product of the public education system. My father worked in public schools for 30 years. I know many other wonderful people who work in the public school system. I have the utmost respect for dedicated teachers and administrators who work hard to teach our children. But the inefficient systems that public schools use to handle their records and paperwork? Those I can definitely do without!
But I digress. Back to Anna's orientation. She was disappointed to learn that her friend from daycare is in another class, but she was excited to learn that she is going to have two teachers. Her teacher just had a baby and is going to be on maternity leave until January, so she will have one teacher the first half of the year, and another teacher the second half. She found her name tag on her table all by herself. She was enchanted by the playground equipment, and ecstatic about having a library at the school where she can check out books. She was intrigued by the "learning cottages" (aka trailers) that have popped up at the school while renovations on certain buildings are going on. And then she didn't want to leave when it was time to go.
And I can't believe it is time for her to go. In five days she will be getting on that big yellow bus (at the glorious time of 6:53am) and heading off on her new adventure. And she will probably handle it better than I will :)
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