Open House

Today was Gage and Emma's open house at school. We had a big fight/major meltdown before we even left the house because I thought it would be a great time to start learning how to tie shoes. Great idea! Gage has always had either slip on or velcro shoes since starting school. That is a bad plan. Because of this, he hasn't learned how to tie his shoes. Despite getting a couple of great pairs of hand-me-down shoes from Gage's buddy, Grant, not too long ago, I thought it might be more wise to get Gage a pair of tennis shoes that tie for school. He picked out the ones he wanted and was very excited about having new shoes. (He honestly hasn't had many new pairs of shoes because we are so fortunate to get such great hand-me-downs). I thought it would be easier for him if I had him sit beside Emma and me and have him do what I was doing. He has very little patience when it comes to me teaching him things. And, I hate to admit, I have very little patience when it comes to me teaching him things. When he gets mad and frustrated, then so do I, and the only place we have to go from there is downhill. We went to the bottom of the hill today. I should have postponed the shoe tying until later, AFTER we had met with Gage and Emma's teachers. We were both able to "shake it off" before we got to the school thankfully. (It doesn't help that I'm PMSing a bit!)

Emma's classroom at Corpus Christi is very nice. We got to see her teacher, Mrs. Just. We already know her because Gage had her his Kindergarten year. The school is very nice. It will be completely shut off to the church and there will only be one way to enter the school for safety reasons. They have a neat little library area and they have a nice collection of books underway. Our very dear friend, Juanita Hocking, is going to be one of the librarians at Northridge this year and will be back and forth between Northridge and Corpus Christi. The kids and I are very excited about that! Welcome Mrs. Hocking! As we were leaving Corpus Christi to walk up the hill to Northridge, I was wondering where we will be able to park Emma's bicycle because there were no bike racks that I could see. On our way back home after seeing Gage's classroom I stopped back through to ask them and the principal just happened to be the one there for me to ask. He hadn't even thought of bike racks and didn't realize there would be any Kindergarteners riding their bikes to school. He was thankful for my question and made a call to someone about getting bike racks right there on the spot!

Gage's classroom is very nice as well. We weren't familiar with his teacher, Mrs. Smith. I guess Gage did have her a little bit this summer at Camp Edventure, so he does know her from that. Her room is very nice. She appears to have the "less is more" philosophy, which I like. Some of the teachers get so much crap in their rooms I don't even know how the kids can focus. There's one Kindergarten teacher in particular that definitely has issues with that. I'm thankful we don't have that room. I didn't even think to sneak a peek into her room when we were there, to see if all of the things she keeps in her room made the transfer with her from Northridge. I'll have to check it out next time I get the chance.

I am already worried about how I'm going to be in 2 places at one time on Thursday. They initally mentioned staggering the start times between the 2 schools so that parents who had kids in both facilities would have time to get each child to school without being late, but they didn't follow through with that idea. On a typical day I don't think we'll have a whole lot to worry about, but you know me and pictures. I want to get all of those "first day" shots and I can't be at both places at the same time to do that AND Scott is going to be out of town. I'm sure this is just a silly thing to worry about, but I don't want either Gage or Emma to think that I think one is more important that the other because I have pictures of one and not the other. Any ideas from my fellow anal mothers/scrapbookers? Not to mention, I am going to be a complete basket case. I already know it because I nearly broke down in tears when we went into Emma's classroom today. I had to take several deep breaths to fight off the tears, and even then they were welling up, but thankfully none dropped. This is not a great time for PMS. However, I don't think it really matters if I am having PMS or not. I just have a hard time with these sort of things. Even last year, with Gage going to first grade, I had problems. It was his first year of going all day, every day, so I had a good excuse. I just hate good-byes. I've never been good at them. I always cry when I say good-bye to my parents when we leave. It's just too hard and it makes me sad. Even though I am overjoyed about Emma starting school full-time this year, it just makes me sad because they are growing up too fast. (Sorry Mom, I know this is probably going to make you sad and cry because I get this from you!) :-) So, I may need some major therapy by 8:30 Thursday morning.

On our walk home from the open house, Gage was begging to go to the new Clone Wars movie. It's a new animated Star Wars movie that is out in theaters. Unfortunately one of his friends came up to him at school and said, "Guess what Gage? I'm going to Clone Wars tonight!" UGH! Why do kids do that? I made it a point to ask Gage on our walk home from school how that felt. I am always telling them not to be telling others about things they get or activities they get to do because it comes across as bragging. I know many times it's just that the kids are excited and want to share the excitement with their friends, but in my eyes, all that does is hurt feelings. I am always stressing that to my kids, and I'm hoping when these incidents happen they realize why it's better not to do that to their friends. However, this was a great bargaining tool. Gage has agreed that he will really try hard to learn how to tie his shoes and not give me such a big fit about it. Scott told him that we would take him to Dairy Queen if he would learn to tie his shoes, but I scratched that idea and told him he could get a new Star Wars Lego set if he will learn to tie his shoes without throwing tantrums and we could go see the new movie. (This will work way better than ice cream!) Since we finished lunch, he has been carrying around a "How to Tie Your Shoes" book that I bought a couple of years ago and wearing his new shoes and has been determined to figure this shoe-tying thing out! Bribery is such a wonderful thing. Aren't I such a great mother? (Emma just came downstairs here with a notepad and pencil and has been checking off each time Gage ties his shoes.........apparently the bribery is working with her as well!? SCORE!)