Survived

Since Abbey was kind enough to ask, yes. He had a good day. He survived. He didn't have any altercations of any sort. He gleefully went and gleefully returned home. I predicted he would crash out at 8pm. He stayed up until 10 because Mythbusters was awesome (exploding lava lamps are wicked cool! And also confirmed dangerous, in case you were planning on putting one on your stove. Don't Do It!).

I like all the kids in his class. He has an issue with one of the boys which carries over from first grade when they were last together. Geoff refers to him as his "Sworn Arch Enemy" so I gave his teacher a heads up.

He rode the bus, didn't want me to give him a ride. His school does a welcome back assembly for the parents on the morning of the first day, so the parents come with the kids to the classroom, discover seats, say hi to the teacher, (in my case give a note with cell phone number just in case she needs me), and then the parents go to assembly where the principal talks about the year and what is to be expected and how things will go.

The support staff then introduces themselves - gym teacher, music teacher, school counselors, art teacher, technology/media specialists, all that jazz. They're actually a wonderful batch of people -- and I like them a lot so it's good to go.

I had gone to Geoff's class to wait for him to get off the bus, spoke with his teacher for a bit. She informed me that his last year's teacher is her best friend so they "spent time this summer discussing stragegies that work for Geoff in the classroom." In otherwords, they talked smack about my kid. Heh. I know, I know... they probably dissed him a bit, but also talked about what really does work for him and I'm incredibly glad Mrs. 4th grade can turn to Mrs. 3rd grade to say "what the heck do I do with this kid!"

All told, I think it'll be a good year.

And without his knowledge, I taped a sticky note to the top right corner of his desk that read:

"Remember! Guster Says:
Be Calm, Be Brave. It'll Be Okay."

Which he thought his teacher put there for him and he said "My teacher likes Guster too!" I had to let him know I did it.

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Jess had a good day too, I knew she would. She reports there are 11 students in her honors German class. Tight competition but she's looking forward to it. She likes her classmates there, and aside from Theatre Arts I think it will be her favorite class.

It is almost too easy having her as a kid. She is self sufficient, gets things done, I really don't have to ride her on anything. I don't have to ask her to get school work done the way I have to beg her to do things like load the dishwasher. When it comes to the academics, school is her bitch and she rules it with iron fists. I am quite proud of her, but feel somehow I should be putting more into her at this point.

But she's almost like on auto-pilot or something. Or it seems like she's already a college student the way she manages her workload and takes care of business.

Makes me feel useless and old.

Anyway -- day two begins. I need to tie this up and get out to the bus. Have a great day yins.

Oh! Yesterday I saw an Alberta licenseplate. So my Canadian provinces grows by one. I am still on the look out for Idaho, Nebraska and Arkansas. I will never see the elusive Guam again. Sad.