Kindergarten Tomorrow

Fans, we have met Mrs. Dvorak.  (She has brown hair. No word on whether or not there will be themes; we forgot to ask.) First impressions: no nonsense and firm, but not harsh; she'll be good for a hug if one is needed.  In other words, she seems pretty great.  Joe shook her hand, and looked at her when answering her questions. Now, when she was talking mostly to us and only partly to him, he was not looking at her.  Instead, he was checking out the classroom and pretty quickly wandered over to the library where he settled himself right into a chair to look at all the books.  (He may have tried to walk off with one because, you know, he was looking at it and wasn't done.)  So it was all very encouraging, but also very brisk--moving right along--and then we were off for the rest of the day's adventures.  For Ted, this meant going to work, but for Julie and Joe, this meant helping the window blinds salesman unload supplies from his truck, lunch out at the simultaneously loved-by-Joe-and-loathed-by-Julie-and-Ted Yum!, a trip to Paint Your Plate (where Joe painted a motorcycle), a trip through the car wash, a stop by the library to pick up some books, and a trip to Target to get, among other things, bread with which to make Joe and sandwich to take for lunch tomorrow, and Tinkerbell underwear to celebrate Birdie's overnight triumph.

Joe is himself a Fan, of Paint Your Plate, and Julie loves it, too, because it's outside-of-her-house crafting messiness and because you get a tangible thing to hold of a moment in time.  When Julie and Joe were there today, Julie made another of the dinner plates with Joe's handprint in the middle that she's been make with him and with Biride since they were each around a year old ("the handprint series," if you will). The first one she made with Joe has both of his handprints in its middle. Today one hand just fit inside a plate's center. Oh Fans. She fought back the tears.  Joe turned to her at one point--not, interestingly, then--and said, "Mommy, turn off the waterworks!"  Did one of us say this to him--or to Birdie--recently? He was saying it in that I'm-trying-this-new-slang/phrase-out! way that's so dear.  Julie laughed out loud.  Fans, it was fun.  As those of you who have been with us for any length of time (including those of you who might also have gone before us with your own wee ones) know, it's not always sunshine and roses, but this afternoon really was.

And tomorrow he will be, as his Grandpa Charles texted Julie, "embarking on that long journey to his own destination."  It's going to be exciting, and tough.  Maybe Mrs. Dvorak will give us a hug.  If not, at least we can hold hands as we go.