Already four weeks of school are history, all things move so quickly. My 7th grader Emily is on the volleyball team and they played their first game this week, they lost. They have a good team though and I think they will be winning soon. Volleyball is a really fun sport to watch, it also moves very quickly [continuing my lovely metaphor.] Emily has also chosen to participate in the jazz band, playing the piano. She had to try out for this as well and we were extra pleased that she got into it. It's a big commitment though, as she has to go to school almost an hour before the rest of her school. I'm so proud of her efforts. She's definitely not a little girl anymore. She is almost as tall as me, her 12 year old shoe size has already surpassed mine and she looks so grown up, with the grown up attitude to go with it! She's a good girl though. She isn't the least bit fussy about her clothes or about junior high anythings! I'm loving that! I hope it lasts. She has more confidence at 12 than I ever had, so she must certainly get that from Tony.
Sarah, Wyatt, and Eva all have teachers we have had in the past, so that makes it kind of nice for us. We have always had good experiences whether the teacher was new to us or not but having ones that we know already is sort of a comfort. Eva's kindergarten teacher is the same as the other three have had. I couldn't be more pleased with that. She is a wonderful teacher, so nice, gentle with the little ones, very professional, and also a very very talented teacher. She is also from the same town in Mexico that Tony is from so that makes her extra special!
Sarah is a happy 4th grader. This morning I walked them into school. I don't often do this, usually I drive through the line and they get out and walk themselves in. This morning Sarah and I walked Eva to her class. Wyatt, Eva's regular attendant, ran ahead of us since I was there to give him the day off. It's been the sweetest treat to my eyes to watch the way Wyatt takes Eva's hand as they walk off down the hallway each morning together, I can see this from the line as I leave in my car. It looks exactly like this from our Disneyland trip, only with school uniforms. [I have lots of pictures of this because he was constantly holding her in this sweet big brotherly protective way.]
After we left Eva in the kinder playground happily skipping around with her new friends, I walked Sarah over to her class. She started to slow as we got closer and then came to a stop, not looking at me. I stared at her, she had a smile on her face. I picked up her chin and said, "you don't want me to walk you over do you?" She smiled her biggest smile at me and said "no." So I let her walk the rest of the way alone. I watched her. She put down her backpack at her classroom step and three of her good friends quickly surrounded her and began to walk over to the morning opening. I took a mental picture of her smile as she greeted her friends, how they looked, how they walked together. I stayed at the school for almost the next two hours with PTA moms assembling and delivering fall fundraiser packets to classrooms. Our kids and all the other schoolchildren are going to ask you to buy loads of crap. We are sorry for that, but it just works. That's just how we pay for stuff for the kids, field trips and such, it's a necessary evil.
Wyatt is just one crazy active boy. He starts the day running and he runs all day. He is the first one to get up in the morning and he is dressed, bed made, and eating his cereal before the other girls are awake [except for Emily who has to go in extra early.] He has his first male teacher this year. He has only changed his card one time, or so he told me. I know he runs all day because I pick up Eva an hour before the others get out of school and I have watched him secretly when I am on campus collecting Eva. I sat in my car in the parking lot yesterday because I arrived a little too early to pick up Eva. I saw him on the playground with his best buddies. He made me dizzy. He is rough, tough, and ferociosly independent. At night though, right before bedtime, he becomes my little boy again. He becomes emotional, he shows his sweet side. He tells me his secrets, he lets me race my fingers through his hair, and he becomes my sweet kissable darling every night when I tuck him in.
Eva is the sweetest of the sweet. Today when I picked her up I said to her, "I missed you so much today!" She replied to me, "if you missed me so much, then you can take me home." She saw her school principal at a school fundraiser at Dairy Queen on Wednesday night and when she got home she excitedly told me, "I saw Leah [her best buddy] and the man that congratulates you." I knew exactly who she was referring to, after all, she has seen him at many assemblies shaking hands with the children who receive awards. She has probably heard him say the word "congratulations" a thousand times. What a smart and thoughtful little cookie!
In kindergarten, her teacher does not, ever, speak to her in English [it gradually shifts and by sixth grade it's 50/50.] What a challenge! Yet she, as my others have done, is thriving. She doesn't even complain, ever! Though Tony's first language is Spanish, we pretty much speak English exclusively in my house. I love that my kids are receiving this extraordinary gift of language in addition to all the regular studies that every other schoolchild in California receives, and I see it as a blessing that we have access to such an awesome awesome, I'll say it again, awesome program!
This weekend we begin the love/hate [for me anyway] continuum [because that sounds fine and I don't know what else to make of it] that is called soccer season. Three kids playing and nine weeks of games on Saturday mornings/afternoons. It's going to get crazy. I'm going to loose it a little bit. It already has with at least five currently scheduled weekday practice sessions between them. Add to that piano lessons for two girls now, Boy and Girl scouts + CCD starting up which = me embracing [or trying not to throw up on] my "summer's over get used to it lady" hat that I now wear. It says in all caps, "DRIVER."
Emily is at Girl Scouts tonight, on a scavenger hunt through town. Tony just left for his softball game. Anyway, I don't know why I chose tonight to blab on and on about my kids, I do feel an extra high surge of parental pride and fulfillment these days. I just can't help myself. I feel like I do a lot, but I know I don't do enough and that there are plenty of things I could do better, like dinner for instance, but I'll save that topic for another day. I'm a complete contradiction of a person who is completely and passionately and forever in love with my four little people.
And just like that off to the softball game we also go.
Sweet Post, Melocha. Tony's playing softball? I didn't know that. Love ya!
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