Author Archive for Melissa
Me: I have a 30% off code for Gap this weekend!
Jason: *grumbling* 30% off is still 70% on.
Me: *rolling my eyes*
Jason: Is it for you or the kids? Because you told me this morning that the kids don’t need anything. Besides, I bet we could buy cheaper clothes for them full price at Target than 30% off at Gap.
Me: Yeah, but not as cute…
Jason: Plenty cute for the 8 times they’ll wear it. Rule of thumb: cost per wear should be less than $2.
*sigh*
Can we back up about 6 months so I can have my nice, polite, mostly cooperative girl back?
I know she is going through a lot right now with starting school and it really has not been easy for her. We’re on day 7 of Kindergarten now and she’s still crying almost as much as she did on the first day when we drop her off in the mornings. Two days ago she said she cried in the gym after school because there were too many kids there. Yesterday she said she cried on the way to lunch because she wanted a hug from me. She told me last night that she doesn’t want to go to school. The interesting thing is that I think she has a lot of fun at school. She talks excitedly about the things they are doing and even flat out tells us that she likes it and has fun. That’s why I’m having a hard time understanding why she’s having so much trouble adjusting to the drop off thing. I know it will pass but it sucks right now to pry her off of me to leave her in the cafeteria each morning.
So we get sad, clingy, separation anxiety Lily in the mornings and then we get surly, mouthy, argumentative Lily in the evenings. I’m sure she’s tired, and stressed, and overwhelmed but I do not like that way she’s been acting at night lately! Everything is a struggle and ends with her in a puddle on the ground sobbing because she’s lost books for the next two nights. We are definitely seeing some regression here too. During these evening struggles she goes from a back talking, sassy 5 year old to a whining, tantruming 18 month old in minutes. Meanwhile, Cameron reminds us that he’s “making good choices, Mommy.”
I feel like it’s a delicate balance. I know she’s tired from no more naps and generally keyed up from all of the new things that are going on…but, we can’t condone her behavior lately and let is slide. So, she loses books and songs and other privileges and those losses lead to even more whining and fit-throwing which leads to more losses and so on. On the other hand, I don’t want to be too heavy handed on the punishments because of the aforementioned no naps, new experiences, etc, etc, etc that she’s dealing with right now. For now, I guess we’ll continue to dole out the consequences but then also add some extra love/cuddles that she clearly needs right now.
My little girl started Kindergarten yesterday! She’s been looking forward to school for awhile now but also a bit nervous about it. For the past few weeks we’ve tried not to talk about it too much because I think that just makes her realize that it’s a Big Deal that may warrant some panic. So, the whole Kinder discussion had taken a back seat for awhile until the couple of days leading up to the Big Deal.
Lily is/was very excited about the notion of starting school! She has been itching to wear her new school clothes for several weeks now and picked out the outfit for the first day a few weeks ago.
All morning on Wednesday she kept asking if it was time to go and we kept telling her not quite yet. Finally, it was time to walk over to the school. She was very excited and happy on the short walk to the school but once we had to wait in line for 10 minutes to get her name tag the nerves set in. As would be expected, there was lots of commotion at the school and it was a little chaotic which, I’m sure, is intimidating to someone who is among the youngest kids there. After we got her name tag we waited again to be taken to the gym where the kindergarten classes were meeting for the first day. I guess the class rosters weren’t finalized yet and they were going to use the first day to get to know the students and make sure there was a good mix of kids in each class. Makes sense, but I think this approach created some anxiety for many of the kids…Lily included.
The kids were placed at tables with coloring sheets and crayons and instructed to color for awhile until they were ready to get started. Many parents were hanging around so we joined some of our friends while the kids colored. After about 10 minutes Jason said he just saw Lily wipe her face and he thought she was crying. Sure enough, when he got to her she had tears streaked down her face. Apparently she had been crying for some time. Of course, this set me off and I started to tear up. I made sure to hang back so Lily didn’t see that though. Jason talked with her for a bit and then I took a turn with her. We told some jokes and she cheered up a bit until we told her that it was time for us to go to work. She was full on sobbing at that point and practically begging us not to go to work. She said that she didn’t want to stay and play. ACK! Talk about a tough parenting moment. I think all of the waiting and waiting just really got to her so her nerves were able to take over. I knew she would be fine shortly after we left but I couldn’t just leave her standing in the middle of strangers crying her eyes out. Luckily, her teacher came over right then and that allowed us to leave.
It was a very strange day now knowing what she was doing throughout the day or who she was playing with. We picked her up after school and she told us that she had fun! She played with her friend Matthew and ate lunch with him and they learned how to walk in the hallways and got to read books. She said that she didn’t play with any other kids but that’s OK.
We learned that she got the teacher we were hoping she would get but her buddy Matthew isn’t in the same class. Kind of a bummer but I’m sure they will still be able to see each other at lunch and recess.
The good news is that she was ready to go back again today and was excited to take her back pack and lunch box for the first time. BUT…when we got to the classroom she got teary again and didn’t want us to leave. Poor girl. I hate that this is so stressful for her. She did get involved with her teacher pretty quickly though and wasn’t crying when we saw her through the window on our way out.
This school stuff is so crazy! I’m planning to attend the PTO meeting next week so we’ll see what all of that is about.
