First Day of Kindergarten

The kids are at their first day of kindergarten, and I'm at home in an empty house.  I'm not hating this, I must say.

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Of course, this is a rare occasion that is not likely to happen again unless I'm sick or something.  I chose to take the day off to walk the kids to the bus stop with Mike, to meet them at the school and walk them in for their first day, participate in the parent coffee hour in the cafeteria, and be available at the end of the half day to meet the kids back at the bus stop like I will the rest of the school year.

I'll meet my own students tomorrow and hope that starting the year with a sub didn't get us off on a bad foot.  I trust they'll understand.

Michael and Sophie did great this morning.  They woke up a half hour earlier than necessary and snuggled in bed with me for a bit, a perk of staying home today that I didn't anticipate.  There were some typical morning road bumps (Sophie getting mad that Michael was singing, Michael resisting his new outfit despite trying it on yesterday and being cool with it), but overall they got dressed, made their beds, ate and cleaned up their breakfast, brushed teeth, combed hair, and tolerated me taking 466 pictures on the way to the bus stop.  No joke.  On big days I get tempted to lean on those priority settings, but I stuck with manual and took a ton to be sure I got something.  Here are a few.

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So far there have been no tears from any of us.  It's been exciting, really.  I can't wait to hear about their morning!

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Hide and Seek

One of the challenges we know we're going to face when the kids start kindergarten next week is the total elimination of naps, at least five days a week.  Over the summer I have tried to cut back on the naps, but these kids just still love them most days.  They even ask for "driving naps" when we're out for the day.  I too have come to love driving with soothing music playing, drinking my afternoon coffee, and taking peeks at my dozing babes in the rear view mirror, their faces looking much like they did as infants in their car seats.

To help ease the napping habit, we often purposely do fun stuff in the early afternoon like go to the pool or a park.  On Friday, we went for the park. 

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Michael and Sophie played hide and seek for most of the time there.

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I love Sophie's look of glee at being spotted by Michael.

Although these two have spent three days a week during the last five school years in child care, they spent two hours of those days napping.  Kindergarten with its five full days a week is certainly going to wear them out.  Wish us luck with that and the rest of this special transition!