Half Day Fridays

January 27, 2012Leave a comment

Standing tall at school

Maria had a half day of school today due to teacher/parent conferences. What a pain. I guess I should be glad that the teacher did not require one for Maria, which means she has “no issues” to discuss with us. I am quite sure we won’t be so lucky with Mario.

I had to take the day off of work because of Maria’s 11:25 early dismissal. By the time I took her to school and Mario to daycare, I would have only had an hour at work. Monday morning will not be fun. I had told Maria that she could go to a friend’s house after school but she begged to be with me. I told her that I had a YMCA Board meeting at noon and she would have to go. She was all for it because she remembers the food buffet at the last meeting! When I picked her up, she hopped in the car and asked if we could get Mario. I had not considered it because having Maria and Mario at the Board meeting would be a recipe for disaster. But Maria pleaded on behalf of her brother, and I caved. When we walked into Mario’s room at 11:40, his eyes widened and he asked coyly “Do I get to go home with you?” When Maria yelled “Yeah” Mario gave her a big ol’ hug.

We walked into the Board meeting after ground rules were laid out to the kids (Maria knows them already but Mario, not so much). I had the IPad, the IPhone, coloring books and crayons. I knew if I had the IPad for Mario then we would be ok. An hour playing with that device is like a piece of heaven to him. When we walked in the door, we smelled the chili and cornbread. Maria yanked at my shirt and whispered “Look, Mom, they have chili and bread!” Mario just kept begging for the IPad. We situated ourselves at the back table. Maria brought us all waters and napkins. Our little waitress.

The kids did a great job throughout the meeting. Mario played with the IPad the entire time as I knew he would. Maria drew me a picture but then went for my phone. When Mario had to go to the bathroom, she took him back to the bathroom for me remembering exactly how to get there. The meeting was inspirational – I love these types of meetings where we talk about the Y’s mission, how we help the community, what the Y means to people in need. It’s nice to talk with other board members for a bit rather than fly in and out of the meeting every month. Everyone got a kick out of M&M playing away on their electronics; they all remember their kids drawing or reading a paper book. Ahh, those were the good ol’ days.

M&M did a nice job saying goodbye to folks and giving the Executive Director a hug and a thank you for letting them attend. After the Y, we headed to Pier Imports. I could tell the sales ladies were a little worried when Mario walked in since he was flailing everywhere. I cannot believe that we made it out of there with nothing broken! Between Mario picking up vases the size of him and Maria trying to carry glass pigs over to me, it is a miracle. I was in such a deep shopping trance, that we almost forgot to pick up Alana from school. We pulled up just in time and we all headed home for popcorn and Ben 10.

After Ben 10, Mario played some Wii while the girls ran upstairs to play by themselves. The boy is a Wii fanatic. After he played a couple of games, he asked me to come into the room. He came over to me and said “Mom, thank you for picking me up before nap today.” Those are the moments I know I have done something right. Warms my heart. A while later, I got so excited when the kids approached me and asked if we could walk to the park. Is my love for walking and the outdoors finally hitting them! It does seem that when Alana is over they tend to ask that more. She is a good influence. We walked to the park and to the library. Maria and Alana want to walk by themselves. A group of ten-year old boys were walking across the street and I could hear them behind me giggling. We are in trouble.

We ended the night with dinner at Wendy’s and a little Justin Bieber. Can life get any better?!

Summer’s End

August 18, 20111 Comment

Maria started first grade today. There we all stood at 8:05 this morning waiting for the side doors to the school to open. Parents huddled together chatting about how quickly the summer flew by and how old the kids looked. The kids stood at guard against their parents thighs anxious and nervous to start another year.

Maria woke up this morning in a pleasant, calm mood (much better than she had been the night before – worried and cranky about starting school). She wore a dress that Mama Ionno had bought her this Summer. One thing I love about my girl is that she was not all about buying new outfits for school. She is like her parents that way – Jon and I rarely go out to shop; only in desperation. I could not believe the number of women who asked her if she bought a new dress for the first day of school. It didn’t bother her though – she simply replied with a “uh-uh” and moved on her merry way. Of course, I act as if she is some holier than thou girl who shuns all material goods. I must admit that when I asked her what she wanted to do before her first day of school, she did not say “go shopping” much to my liking but she did say “Get a manicure and pedicure.” And after getting a manicure and pedicure, I realized it would have been a lot cheaper to just buy a dress!

Maria's pedi (including a peace sign)

When the first bell rung, we all herded through the doors and up the stairs to Maria’s Room 203. Her teacher hastily greeted us and took our paperwork and invited Maria to have a seat. Maria had a book about Arthur at her seat. She liked that. She is sitting at a table with two boys. I am sure she liked that, too. She sat in her seat and put on her name tag. She looked like a lot of the other kids. Nervous; bewildered; slightly excited. I kept giving her hugs and kisses until she finally said in an exasperated tone “Mom” and shooed me out with her hand. She is no longer my baby kindergartener.

I left work early to pick her up from school. She smiled so big when she saw me which makes all of the make-up work I had to do tonight on the computer so worth it. But when she walked up to me, the first thing out of her mouth was not “I love you mom; thanks for getting me.” No, instead it was “Where’s Zach?” Zach is her new best friend who lives one block over from us. She walked home with Zach and Zach’s mom and I tried like mad to get them to talk about their first day of school. They just goofed off and ignored us. We did learn that Maria’s favorite part of the day was lunch and that recess is before lunch this year. But that was about it.

Reading Arthur

She got homework for tonight – she had to find three things that reflect who she is or what she likes. She chose a flag of Michigan since she loved to vacation there with Jon and me; a pair of goggles since she loves to swim; and a marker because she likes to draw. She did not want to read with me for ten minutes and when I tried to help her pronounce words, she got flustered. We stuck with one book only tonight. Baby steps – we still have another nine months to go…

The second anniversary of the Stevenson Ice Cream Social

August 12, 2011Leave a comment

My first-grader

We trekked down to the 2nd annual (for us) Stevenson ice cream social tonight on a mission to meet Maria’s first grade teacher and see her new classroom (and load up massive sundae toppings on our ice cream). Maria rode her bike down to the event and Mario ran faster than a cheetah (the boy is swift). He still has not caught on to looking both ways at intersections with stop signs so Maria helps me watch over him like a hawk and scolds him worse than me when he fails to stop and look both ways.

M&M posing on the classroom pillows

Maria’s room is smaller than her Kindergarten room but is filled with books and charts and activities, but especially books. Her teacher is well-known for getting kids to read well and I am hoping that she does just that with Maria Grace. I think Maria will be an avid reader once she gets the hang of it and she is dying to learn more about dogs so she can begin her dog walking business so maybe that will push her. I felt more emotional tonight than I did last year for Kindergarten. First grade seems more like when “true” school begins to me so maybe that is why. I turned to Maria at one point, faked crying and bawled “I don’t want you to be in first grade!” Maria quickly covered my mouth and shook her head: “Mom, stop doing that. One of my friends could come in here.” Yeah, the embarrassment is already starting.

When we got outside, Maria found a couple of friends from last year. They stood around and chatted until Mario ran up and tackled them. Then, all hell broke loose. Mario chased them around the school yard. When he caught one, he squeezed her in a python grip. I hoped he would let go, which he did but then he just moved to the next one and back to the first and back to the next. I grabbed him and told him to stop while still trying to talk to other parents in the yard. Everytime I looked over, he was squeezing another girl or chasing one around. Mario is going to age me tremendously. After I made him sit and stay for five minutes, he got up and walked over to a couple of kids he knows from our babysitter. Within two minutes, I glanced over and he was pummeling one of them. Seriously hitting with a fist. It was at that moment that I knew he would not go to Kindergarten at age 5. He needed to wait a couple of years to get those social skills in order. I knew I shouldn’t have judged those little bratty boys in Maria’s class – Mario will be one of them in two years. That is incentive for Jon and I to throw on the enforcer gloves now.

Already looking like a bada--!

I asked Maria if she was excited about heading back and she promptly replied “no” but I think she secretly is at least a little excited. She sure had fun with her friends while we were at the social. I decided to take the kids to Kings Island tomorrow for one last hoorah before summer break is over. Let’s hope Mario keeps his hands off people.

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama

Tag: School

Half Day Fridays

Summer’s End