The Pizza Quota

School is off to a grand ole start for everyone except Dad--who is on research leave this semester.  T loves it so much she is doing double time--teaching at Wingate and starting doctoral classes at UNC Greensboro.

M had her first day of Kindergarten.  Everything went fine.  She was excited to ride the bus in the morning and C gave her tips and offered to sit with her.  She's in a new Spanish immersion program called "splash"  in which the class is in Spanish one day and English the next.  She seems to like doing Spanish and shares her new words and songs with us each day.  She is very proud of getting green character "letters" above the line every day.  She explains that yellow is "danger" and red is for bad behavior and that she wants green letters.  She expresses shock that there have been a few kids who have earned red letters and she doesn't understand why they don't try harder to make better choices.  Ms. N at Kids Plus has shared her pleasant surprise at how well M is doing in afterschool. (Ms. N got to know M well over the past few years as M would inevitably make a dramatic entrance when we arrived to pick up C.) In her words, "M hasn't beaten up her brother yet!"  M has two good friends from class who join her in afterschool and she enjoys playing with them.  M bought lunch at school for the first time last Friday because it was pizza day.  After school, she complained that they only gave her one piece of pizza and still wouldn't give her another after she asked for more.  It's right out of a Dickens' novel!  I failed to warn her about the no seconds rules for school lunches.

C seems to be enjoying 4th grade so far.  He gets to his homework every day when he arrives home and hasn't fussed about having to do reading.  So far.  He's playing on a soccer team this fall and is having a good time.  He was invited to join the choir which practices after school on Mondays and seems very excited about that.  T took it as an opportunity to sing scales with him.

E told me in the car the other day, "I like going to preschool!" She's proud of having an Elsa and Anna backpack and lunchbox to take to preschool.  Just like Mena's.  Because packing two backpacks and lunchboxes that look exactly the same and getting them to the right person in the morning isn't confusing or anything...  At least they match their Elsa and Anna dolls, shirts, dresses, pajamas, socks, shoes, coats, (how did they miss pants?), Halloween costumes, plates, cups, silverware, place mats, sheets, pillow covers, blankets, bed spreads, and beach towels.  They can't wait for Xmas when there will be even more Frozen merchandise. In more important news, in the past month, E FINALLY has been using the potty consistently and using her big girl panties day and night.

They'll miss the pool as we spent a lot of time there again this summer.  The all made major progress in swimming.  C has no problem in the deep end, swimming around with his friends.  M and E love to swim underwater and to swim from the ladder to Dad standing about 10 yards away.  We won't need to be in the shallow section very much next summer.