On the night before the First Day of School, Gleek was happily assembling her “back to school” bag. This was a bag containing 3 or 4 items that Gleek can show and use to tell about herself. Gleek decided that one of the items was going to be her blankie. Upon hearing this Link’s eyes went wide and he spent the next 15 minutes trying to convey to Gleek that taking blankies to school isn’t a good idea. That in fact he doesn’t tell anyone that he still sleeps with blankies every night. I mentioned to Link that 1st grade is much different than 4th grade and the blankie went into the bag. I loved this incident because it showed to me that Link really is beginning to pick up some of those oh-so-necessary unwritten rules of social interaction. He’s very much in his own world much of the time and I’ve been worried that this would make him socially clueless. It gladdens my heart that he is not only picking up some of the social rules, but is also looking out for his sister to make sure that she doesn’t have an unpleasant experience.
I drove to pick up the kids from their first day at school. I elected to do so because I was not at all certain what state Gleek would be in at the end of the day. I didn’t want to haul a screaming/exhausted little girl while walking. It turns out that she came bursting from class filled with energy. The walk would have been fine. Oh well. I’ll walk today. As we headed for the car, the sprinklers came on. It was instantly apparent to me that new sprinklers had been installed and that they were improperly adjusted. “Sprinkler” is such a nice term, implying little drops of water falling gently to water plants. These were actually industrial strength gushers that bore more resemblance to the streams of water that issue from firehoses than to anything sprinkly. Imagine if you will 10 jets of water shooting out 50 feet each and a yard full of school children. Imagine further that these jets do not stay politely in the grassy areas, but also liberally spray the playground, walkways, and parking lot. There were shouts of glee from children and cries of dismay from parents. Half the kids ran for the water and were instantly soaked. The other half fled from the water. Gleek got wet, of course. Link and Patches fled. Our van got thoroughly drenched. I even got sideswiped once. Personally I was more amused than upset by the sprinklers. But I’m certain that there were parents who were angry. The school office has definitely informed the custodian so that the watering schedule can be adjusted. I suspect they were supposed to go off at 2:15 am instead of pm.
I took Kiki school shopping. It was a trip for just the two of us. It was a good time for me to get details about her first day. All evidence that I have indicates that she had a good time. She’s convinced that she is in a good school and she likes most of her teachers. There is one teacher who assigned homework on the first day. Kiki was outraged at this. It amused me greatly that Kiki’s homework was essentially the same assignment as Gleeks “Back to school bag.” Kiki has to select three things to take to school and use them to tell about herself. This was the horrible assignment which caused moaning and groaning. The shopping was fun. Naturally at every stop Kiki finagled me into buy more things than was my original intention. However Kiki will have to pay me back for some of the items. There are further items she’d like to buy, but which she’ll have to save up for first. Most of the extras were things like post-it notes and highlighter pens. I’m not sure why post-it notes were critically important, but I did buy her a little starter pad so she can see if she really uses them. The important thing is that when she walked out the door this morning she had a new shirt and her new binder and a new purse to accompany her on her adventures in junior high land.
It is very common for the left-at-home sibling to feel lonely and left out when the older ones are gone to school. Patches has expressed a desire to start preschool, but for the most part he seems to be relishing the quiet as much as Howard and I are. He plays happily by himself for hours on end. Around lunch time today I gathered him up and sat down to eat with him. We had a nice time just the two of us sitting and eating and talking. Then I read him a couple of stories. It is a pattern I think I want to keep. I have work things to do for much of the day, but I can devote some time to just Patches right around lunchtime. I do need to make sure that Patches gets enough interaction with other kids during the course of the day. Preschool starts next Tuesday and will provide some of that. I’ll still be watching and making play dates as necessary.