Getting the Band Back Together

Joe is playing parks and rec soccer again and the season started this past Saturday.  He was especially excited because after a week of new faces and experiences and routines that felt anything but, he was going to see Marco and Darby, both of whom are on his team, the Giants.  The Giants wear pale blue jerseys.  Julie wasn't there when the band got back together, but Ted reported that Joe and Marco were perhaps a bit more excited about the reunion tour than playing soccer.  We'll see if the acuteness of their respective absences wears off as the weeks progress.

Meanwhile, the Birds took a ladies walk with Marco's mom and sister, Ms. Amanda and Lily.  Lily just clocked 18 months and so while she is walking, she's not lapping the neighborhood in anything but her stroller.  Birdie did so on her bike.  She can ride without being pushed now and thus, of course, doesn't like it when anyone uses the push handle to boost her efforts--even up a hill.  But it was a hot day, so eventually, Birdie got too hot and tired to do anything but keep peddling.  She really can't take the hills on her own yet, but she did keep up on a long walk.

Birdie likes to "wave you bye" when someone goes and she is staying behind at the house.  Here she is waving Joe bye as he heads off to soccer.

Cooling down after practice and the walk. . .

With some of the stuffed kingdom.

Check and Check and Mate and Mate

Fans! We're back, already in the midst of another weekend. But before we get to the intervening week, we have to circle back around to last weekend! We watched a fair amount of tennis. While the men's singles championship raged on, Julie and Joe played some No Stress Chess.  Joe beat Julie twice, in a row.  The first time was really quite something: Julie's king was exposed, and Joe drew a knight card twice in a row and swiftly leaped across the entire board in two turns to take Juie's king out with a flourish.  Fans, he was very proud, very proud.

Sara came over Monday night to sit with the bambini while Julie took Ted out to date night at a local place for hips birthday. Joe hauled out the No Stress Chress straight away, perhaps because he knows Graham also plays.  When Julie Nd Ted got home, Sara said she and Joe had played a game. Julie commented that he had beaten her twice over the weekend.  Sara paused and then said, "I know."

A veritable Grand Mastering the making.  And modest, too!

The board, with the felled king.

Joe, after his second win.

Paddle boat

All summer Julie and Ted have been promising a canoe or paddle boat trip. Finally the stars aligned and we headed to Centennial Lake, which is a little man made lake next to a shopping mall. Not a natural wonder, but it was open in the morning.  We scored a sparkly green paddle boat, and by far the highlight came at the end when we spied two wedding parties having pictures taken. Clara called the brides princesses, and Julie was quick to say that the brides definitely feel like princesses on this day.  After our 30 minutes of paddling, which was in 85 degree heat and more work than the parental unit bargained for, we docked. Julie and the kids were quick to grab a seat on a bench to ogle the bridal party getting some final shots done.  A good end of summer adventure for our little prince and princess!

The Third Day of Kindergarten

Fans, it was better.  Not long after Joe arrived at Kid's Place this morning, another boy--named Miles as it turns out--also in Joe's class arrived.  (We could tell because his dog tags, if you will, were also strung around his neck with aqua blue string.)  They said hello as best as two five-year-old boys on their third day of kindergarten surrounded by two teachers and two parents can.  When Julie left, they were sitting across from each other, Miles reading a magazine from home and Joe with the Spiderman puzzle that had been thrust into his hands.  When Julie arrived to pick Joe up, they were sitting next to each other at  a table with pretty much every other boy in the room staring at a video game that two of them were playing.  It was clear how the whole taking turns thing worked; doubtful that it was voluntary.  Anyway, they were sitting together.  When Julie asked Joe if he wanted to hang around a little longer or go home though, he said go home and got up to leave.  Julie suggested saying goodbye to Miles, and Joe did, but too softly for Miles to hear.  So Julie suggested he say it a little louder maybe.  And Joe practically shouted right into Miles' ear, "BYE MILES!"

Well anyway.  They were sitting together.

Julie got an impromptu tour of Joe's room when she asked Joe where a water fountain was and it turned out to be in Joe's classroom.  "It's on the right [of the sink]," Joe told her.  She saw his table, and learned the names of all the kids at it.  She also saw the mailboxes, where Joe proceeded to read the names of all the kids in the class, including one beginning with a silent T: "The T is silent," Joe informed Julie, as his put his thumb over the T.

On the walk home, Joe asked Julie if Graham had asked the same or different kid to slide down the slide.  (Julie had shared with Joe that Graham had had a similar experience on his second day of school as Joe had had with Aaron.  Joe naturally assumed that Graham had the same plan.  Of course.  Graham is a great guy so for sure he had the same plan.)

Julie said that she didn't know because she and Ms. Sara hadn't talked since this morning, but that they had agreed to check in later so Julie said she would ask.*  That was Julie's opening to ask Joe, "Did you ask the same kid or a different kid?"  Joe said, "Same kid," and. . .wait for it. . ."He said yes."  Can you believe how brave Our Hero was?!  Same kid!  Really?!  And, thank God, Aaron might be o-kay after all.  Maybe.  Joe later allowed that he also played with Karlis.  (Karlis sits at his table, not Brandon as it turns out.)

So here we are on the other side of the first week, short though it was.  We made it.  He made it.

*Graham had a better third day, too.

Hard Things

Well Fans, already, on the second day of kindergarten, Joe has faced one of those textbook childhood challenges: he asked a boy (I'm-older-Aaron, incidentally) if Aaron wanted to play with him at recess, and Aaron said no.  There's not much about that that you can say is good except well, the first time that's happened is over.  (You can think, as Julie did, "What a little s#%$."  But you can't say that.)

But, we've got a plan, Fans, we've got a plan.  Because while it's good to let a teacher know some things, part of getting older and going to school is learning what problems you might be able to solve on your own.  So, tomorrow, Joe is going to do two things at recess:

1.  He's going to ask someone in his class if they want to go down the slide and if that someone says yes, then they'll go off to the slide.  But if that someone says no, then Joe will say, "O-kay.  See you later!" and head off to the slide.  See?  He'll have places to go, things to do, so whatever if you don't want to slide down the slide, Someone.  But hopefully Someone will say "Yes!  Let's go!"

2.  He's going to figure out what his favorite thing is to do on the play ground.  He may have, admittedly, already figured this out since it's now one of our go-to playgrounds.  But, again, he'll have something to do when he's dropped into one of those situations where it's a big mass of squirming, shrieking bodies that he finds overwhelming.

It is worth mentioning that Our Hero negotiated this situation at recess after making his way through two hours of before-care at Kid's Place, which was also new to him.  Julie left him reading two books we put in his backpack, just for his time at Kid's Place.  (We weren't sure of the lay of the land and they had said it was o-kay to bring books or magazines.)  When we arrived, there were about 10 of the 30 or so kids that one of the supervisors, Ms. Gina, said would be there total (about 13 kindergartners today, but all the numbers can vary).  Gina told Julie this afternoon that Joe read those books for a while and then found a Spiderman puzzle which he worked on for a long time.  In the afternoon, she said it's pretty chaotic with all the kids arriving after dismissal so she wasn't sure if Joe got a snack.  (He did.  He put it in his backpack "to keep it safe" because he "wasn't sure where to sit.")  She said he went outside for a bit, but she saw him looking overwhelmed so she approached him and he told her he wanted his Mommy.  Gina told him his Mommy would be there soon and took him inside and hooked him up with another puzzle.  Julie will admit that she didn't manage to fight back entirely the tears in her eyes hearing all this, but she promised Gina she wouldn't cry every day, and told her she knew it would be o-kay soon; it was just hard right now and he was our first.  Gina said her son was 21 and she remembered how hard it all could be.  So she seems like good people all the way around.

Joe did figure out how to buy milk today.  You stand in the "lunch from home line," but at its front, apparently.  He asked for help opening his applesauce.  He also remembered that one of the other boys at his table is named Brandon.  He used the bathroom (it's in his room).  He did all that, and some really hard things today.  Do you ever notice how bravery doesn't feel so great in the moment?  What's up with that?  But maybe one day soon Joe will feel what a triumph today was.

In the meantime, tomorrow is another day, and he's got a plan for it.  We are making it up as we go along, but it feels like a reasonably solid plan.

We have a plan, too: be patient, remember that today was only the second day, and to keep remembering that if you don't have anything nice to say little s#%$s, best not to say anything at all.