The Mayor of Kindergarten

There are a few different stories of late that are floating around in my head -so I will share them all in one hodge podge post.

First, the title of this post refers to the daily phenomenon of the kindergarten drop off.  There are three kindergarten classes and therefore three orderly lines down the sidewalk in front of the kindergarten-only entrance.  There is a monitor there and she is in to crowd control, which is good.  We usually arrive in about the middle - there are always kids in line already but the bussers haven't arrived.  Everyday, someone yells hi to Casey - sometimes a kid I know and sometimes one I don't.  Always someone in Casey's class with the exception of one boy who lives on our street but is in a different class.  The other day as we got up to the line, all these kids start saying hi to Casey - from all the classes.  "Hi Casey!" "Casey's here!"  "Hi Casey!"  The fairly serious monitor couldn't help but notice and yells out "Hi Casey!" and then looks at me - "What, is he running for Mayor of Kindergarten?"  I think its great - we have not been notified that he is causing trouble so we are hopeful that kids know him for a positive reason.

I am enjoying a lot of time with Sam these days and I have been telling Jeff that we are raising Rodney Dangerfield.  He has this "funny voice" much like Dangerfield and has the palms-up-shoulder-shrug "what?" thing down.  The other day I sent him to clean his hands and I didn't think he did it, so I asked to smell his hands.  They smelled like soap, so I was wrong and I said "Your hands smell nice and clean" and he says, in the voice, "good, cause my feet smell terrible.... what?"  So funny.

Showing me "uptown" stance from Little Ninjas

Casey showed me a bear he colored at school, and later referred back to it to tell me that he and his table mates had each named their bears.  His was called Robin and Isabella's is Rapunzel.  The next morning as we are getting close to school and we saw Isabella, he says to me, almost whispering, "Mom, one more thing, me and Isabella's bears are going to get married."  Aw.  Isabella has been struggling with behavior issues so far this year - they have a card system where everyone starts on green and you get your card flipped for any behavior problems.  Casey had his flipped to yellow one day and the aide told me about it when I picked him up.  She said he was pushing in line, and was told to stop 2 times, then put in time out and then did it again.  So she had to flip his card.  Made sense to me!  And the fact that she gave him so many chances felt like a good thing too.  So he has been quick to tell us everyday since that he has stayed on green.  He also likes to tell me who did not stay on green and especially when someone gets all the way to red.  We are working on the part where he waits to tell me until we are out of ear shot of every other kid and parent, but anyway.  Most days, Isabella gets her card flipped.  He doesn't really know why.  So the other day he told me that Isabella stayed on green all day.  That night he told me that he really hopes Isabella can stay on green again the next day and I told him he should tell her that and encourage her.  The next day he was very excited to tell me that he did tell Isabella "kind words" in the morning and she did in fact stay on green all day.  Could be all part of his mayoral campaign, but its still cool.

Both boys are again on this kick of asking a ton of questions about college.  At this point, they have both decided that while they are willing to take classes to "learn to have a job" as Sam says, they will not be moving out.  They want to stay in their bunk beds FOREVER.  Casey asked if you make new friends at college, and I said yes!  I told them that college is where mom and dad met each other.  "You met each other in college and decided you wanted to be parents together?"  Yeah, basically.

Sam has been going though a little separation anxiety with me it seems - he really wants to be close to me wherever we are.  It has even happened a few times inside the house -he just looses track of what room I am in for a minute and starts to panic.  One time I was changing laundry in the basement and came back up to hear him crying to Casey, saying "she left without us -where did she go?"  He is always so relieved to see me, and asks if I missed him.  I was just doing laundry but sure I did!

We are all exhausted over here from being sports fans -Sunday night we were up late watching the Packers, Monday night it was the Tigers early and Lions late, then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday its been these rain delay ridden nail biter Tiger games as they try to get to the World Series.  It would be great if they got there but this whole town needs a nap - I can't imagine how the team feels!

resting with Dad

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