A movie!

I finally got the movie I edited in July to work. Not that I've tried to upload it since then. Turned out all I needed was Brad standing over my shoulder trying to be helpful while I did all the work. :)

For a refresher on Abby's June dance recital, see my previous post.

Oh yes, she's the one on the far right in the first clip who does double-time hip action. In the second clip, she's on the left and you can hear her above the music. And at the end, she's just shaking that thang while the other girls tap. That's our girl!

Will's World

We had a breakthrough yesterday. Will woke up from his nap and wanted to watch a little TV (nothing new here). I asked if he wanted to watch "Cars" and he said no! What? 

"Football," he said. He wanted to watch football on Monday at 3 p.m. Great. So I flipped through sports channels until I found college football highlights from last weekend, but every time it switched from the clips back to the commentators, he would yell "NO, FOOTBALL!" It was quite pleasant since Abby and I were trying to finish up a game in the other room. We don't even have much football on while he's awake, but somehow he knows. They always know!

A couple weeks ago, he was watching the big kids on the block play football in the street. Our aforementioned neighbor (whom he loves) walked up and said hi to him. He didn't even look at her, but shushed her by pointing and saying "Football," like "Come on lady, can't you see I'm watching the game?" I'm not sure I like where this is headed.

But of course, we have more than football on the brain. The other morning, both kids were coloring. Will looked over at Abby's page and said, "Wow! Amazing!" I'll give you one guess which movie he was quoting. He's also started saying "I don't know" except it's not really three separate words. It all runs together like "Iunno." You know, kind of like adults do it. Intonation and everything.

By the way, we now have Browns vs. Giants on the DVR.

Abbyism of the Week:

I was talking to Brad the other day (I don't even remember what we were talking about!) and I said, "I can't think of anything off the top of my head."

Abby was standing right there and looked at me and emotionlessly said, "Well, you could try the bottom of your head, mommy."

I wonder where she gets her literalism?

Will's School Too

With Abby off to Kindergarten after being home all summer, I found myself having to relearn how to be at home with Will by himself. We've been playing a lot of racquetball in the cul-de-sac and watching Disney's "Cars." In fact, that's all he wants to do these days. He says, "Outside. Front yard." or "Cars. Watch." until I comply with his demands. There's really no negotiating. He just throws a tantrum if he can't do one of those two things. 

Well, that's not true. We might play another KIND of ball outside. Or ride a scooter. Usually from my neighbor's garage. He seems to think that his territory encompasses about three houses to the left and right of ours. He even gets mad when the neighbor's garage is closed and I tell him I can't open it. Luckily, they are good-natured about it and don't mind opening their house door to find us hanging out in their garage! She heard him get upset the other day, which she says is the first time (does he have her fooled or what?!), and commented that he was acting as if he was almost two or something. Ya think? 23 days. She's got four kids. She knows.

So, having thought well ahead, I registered Will at a new school (in February!) for the fall. He started two weeks after Abby, on Monday and Wednesday mornings. It was a bittersweet transition for me because I will miss our church preschool, but I can no longer justify the 20-minute drive each way when his new school is a very similar Methodist preschool just 7 minutes from home.

The first day I dropped him off, it started raining right as we were leaving the house, which created chaos for all the new routines at the school. But when I took him to his class, he went running in. I was like, "Well, bye then." I don't think he realized I was leaving because when we went to meet the teachers, I had stayed. At least I tell myself he didn't know I was leaving. It was very weird to walk away childless. 

When I picked him up, he looked up at me and then back to his truck and said "Play." I took that to mean he had had an okay time. A moment later,  he jumped up and came running to me, saying "Mommy!" That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

He's in good hands with Ms. Linda. And we're developing these drop-off and pick-up rituals like circling the rocks along the flower bed and driving the firetruck on the playground. I still don't hear much about his day from him or from his teachers, and I still don't know very many of the kids or their parents, but I'm sure that will change. Right?

Kindergarten, At Last!

After the drama of Family Camp, we came home with one week to spare before Abby officially started Kindergarten! Three days before school, they had a play date at the local park for all the entering kids to get to know each other. They even had them color-coded by teacher so they could meet other kids from their classes. Of course, Abby spent most of the time running around with the (preschool-aged) younger sister of one of her classmates!

Then, the big day came. We had made her lunch and set out her new dress and shoes the night before so we could make sure to get out the door by 7:25 to walk the half-mile to school and get her there by the 7:45 tardy bell (!!). She was very reluctant to go into her class at first, but we managed to sneak away without a big fuss. When I picked her up, the first words out of her mouth were "I got to check out a library book!" And then she told me that Kindergarten was "actually better than [she] thought it would be."

Now, we're 6 weeks into it and waking up in the morning can still be tough, but we're making it work (some days better than others). She's told me a couple times that she wishes she were 3 or 4 so she wouldn't have to go to school "EVERY day that Daddy goes to work." 

I've heard it takes several months for kindergartners to finally adjust. But, she's made several new friends. And I'm starting to hear more and more about her days at school. Mostly about how badly the boys behave and how good the girls are. They have a color-coded guide to behavior. She's always proud to come home with "another blue day" and then she proceeds to tell me which of her classmates did NOT get blues that day and why. Seems like she's adjusting pretty well!

As for academics, I have seen such improvement in 6 weeks, I am truly astounded. When she started, she had no interest in reading, and outright told me she didn't want to even try because she knew she couldn't do it. But now, she comes home with these simple books and she's really making great strides with them. Plus, she's told me about ABAB patterns, title pages of books, days of the week, and the months of the year. And her drawing has changed overnight from vague patterns of color to actual recognizable objects. Like really good ones. She's drawing people, cats, dogs, clouds, trees, suns. Not that she couldn't draw those things before, but she's really changed. I think it's a confidence thing. Hmm. Wonder where she gets that?