School Happenings

Sarah's been doing much better at preschool these past few school days, thankfully.  Two and a half weeks ago she decided what she needed to do when she got to class was "sleep with my Kitty Cat".  I told this to her teachers at drop-off and they got her cuddled in a corner with her stuffed animal and said that after a while she came out and happily participated in the rest of the class activities for the rest of the day. Since then if she starts acting too sad when we get to school, I remind her that she can just cuddle with her Kitty Cat until she feels better and that idea tends to help her hang onto her composure. 

I've been packing the kids' lunches in the morning before school, since there's no point in my mind reminding Sarah unnecessarily the night before that there's school the next day.  She'll just start her fussing and whining and telling me with a quivery lip "I don't WANNA go to school!" at night rather then sometime during the morning.  For the first couple days, mention of her school lunch would send her spiraling down the fussy/crying portion of our day, but a few mornings ago she tried a new plan of attack. 

Mommy:  "Kids, what kind of sandwich do you want?"
Sarah: "Anything!" (translated - "I don't want anything" aka nothing!).
Mommy: "Do you want grapes or apple slices for your fruit?"
Sarah: "Anything!"
Mommy: "Do you want carrots or cucumbers?"
Sarah: "ANYTHING!!"

Her refusal to cooperate cheered me up since it was a vast improvement (in my mind) to threatening to break down into tears!  Brian and I are sure that some of the angst and sadness is related to the fact that she's been cutting her two year molars ever since the beginning of September, so we are REALLY ready for that to be over so she doesn't have the added stress of her mouth hurting her. 

Last Friday was "Big Orange" day, so we had to run out and buy some Tennessee orange paraphernalia for the kiddos.  Nathan kept insisting that he needed an orange shirt AND some orange shorts and I finally understood what he was getting at when he said in a confidential tone "But Mommy, if we don't find any orange shorts I don't want everyone to see my underwear!"  A week or two earlier they had "blue day" at school and he embraced it whole-heartedly by wearing blue shorts, blue shirt and blue undies, so this time around he had it in his mind that he couldn't wear shorts that were any color but orange.  Unfortunately for him we didn't find any orange shorts that would fit on short notice, though Sarah did have an orange skirt that she was able to wear to complete her orange outfit!

Last week Nathan did an evaluation with his teaching assistant, Ms. Kaci.  They had told us that they do evaluations with the pre-k class in the fall and spring to determine where the kids are in terms of kindergarten readiness.  Nathan came back from his evaluation saying that "I'm really smart.  I knew all the answers!"  I got the evaluation form back today and it turns out that he did know almost everything that they asked him!

We are so thankful that Nathan (and we believe Sarah too) has been blessed with plenty of intelligence, but we try to avoid calling them "smart".  We believe that it is even more important for them to develop good morals (kindness, compassion, honesty, etc.) and also a good work ethic.  But even so, this Mama's heart did swell with pride when I found out that he did so well on the evaluation!