33

33 feels like 32. today was a good day... and served as a reminder of how blessed i am to have so many wonderful people in my life.

z did quite well this morning. we walked to his class, and i stopped to visit with his teacher about hot lunches. he put his folder away and sat down next to the wall with all the other kids. i walked back down the hall and said, "bye zach." he ignored me.

whatever to him.

thanks mom, dad, steph, brad, and grace for such a wonderful birthday dinner. love you all.

day two of the kinder journey

this morning we were up and ready and to school precisely on time. everything went smoothly, we walked to z's class and waited in the hallway as the kids filed into the classroom.

zach was feeling a little clingy this morning, and wanted to give me several hugs. i willingly obliged. as his turn to enter the room approached, i told him to get his lunch box out of his backpack and get it ready to put on the shelf when he enters the room.

"i want a hot lunch, mom"

"i know you do zach, but we'll have to start that next week. okay?"

"fine."

"good morning zachary!" his teacher called out. he gave her a big smile. good sign. "take your red folder out of your bag and place it in this box. that's our first step every morning."

he took off his backpack and dumped it on the floor.

"pick up your bag and take out the folder and place it in this box." there were people behind us in line, so i picked up his bag and opened it. "take out your folder and put it in the box zach"

as he pulled the folder from the bag, the corner of it nicked his eye. he looked up at me wide eyed and then crocodile tears came pouring down his cheeks.

i kneeled down beside him, and we moved out of the way for the other kids to enter the room. the tears continued to pour as he wiped them away and tried to put on a brave face. "i'm so sorry that happened baby" i kept saying as i helped wipe away his tears. no words, just tears. "are you gonna be alright?" i asked. he nodded in assurance and his teacher gently held him by the arm, urging him into the room.

he turned to face her, but pulled away. she reached for his hand and tugged a little again. he planted his feet, firmly stiffened up and pulled back. it was clear he had no intention of entering the room. neither of them relented. she pulled and he pulled harder. i watched this tug-of-war for a few seconds trying to figure out what i was going to do. i'm lucky in a sense, that it's not often that zach throws such a tantrum. but when he does, he is relentlessly stubborn about it.

so i resorted to bribery.

"do you want to go to the pool tonight?" i whispered in his ear.

he looked at me, reading my face. i could tell the thought appealed to him. his teacher walked away, giving us time to sort this out.

"if you will go into the classroom right now and get a smiley face for the day we will go to the pool tonight."

"okay" he said. he slowly walked in and placed his lunchbox on the shelf. his teacher smiled at him, and he returned it with a sheepish smile also. i could tell he was a little embarrassed.

the principal was making announcements as i walked out of the building. "welcome students to your second day of school! don't worry kinders, you'll get the hang of it soon."

that made me feel better. so now, as i promised, we're off to the pool. round three tomorrow.

first day of school...first day of school...!

zach wasn't quite as excited as little nemo was to go to school. although, he was pretty pumped about getting to use his new spiderman lunchbox. in fact, that seemed to be the only thing that brought a big smile to his face whenever we discussed school.



it's been hard to read if he has been anxious or excited about starting kindergarten. from what i can tell, it hasn't seemed to phase him much. he's pretty good about just going with the flow of things... and i think he's just taking every new adventure in stride.



even though he went to bed early last night, i couldn't get him out of bed this morning. i had to lift him up and set him on the sofa... still half asleep. finally, he got dressed but was still grumpy enough to throw off his shoes and socks three times before finally allowing me to secure them to his feet. he went to bed earlier tonight, so we'll see how it goes in the morning. he hates wearing shoes, so i may have to deal with that for a while.



i was so preoccupied in making sure that he had his nap blanket, water bottle, two healthy snacks, packed lunch, and change of clothes that i totally forgot to grab my camera. luckily for me, his teacher is AWESOME and she emailed the parents a power point first day slide show!!



zach knew the way to his classroom, because we were up there last week for supply drop off night. after observing his teacher that evening he informed me that he already "had the hang" of her. :)



i let him lead the way to class, and when we got there, one of his classmates was red faced and crying. i hadn't prepared myself for crying. it took me by surprise, then zach looked at me and said "what's his problem?" as i was explaining, his teacher came over and said



"hi zach, let me show you to your seat!"



to which he replied "i already know where it is." and headed that direction.



"can i get a hug and a kiss?" i asked. he half-heartedly complied and gave me a quick hug and kiss then bounced off to his seat.



"bye zach" i called to him as i was walking out the door. he didn't even look my direction, already coloring the picture in front of him.



okay then. and i left.



when i picked him up, of course he didn't have much to say about his day.



"it was fun." was all i could get out of him. okay, fine. that's good enough for me.



he couldn't remember, or didn't want to talk about anything they did. but he did oblige me when i asked what his very favorite part of the day was.



"nap time."



"really?"



"yeah."



"what was fun about nap time?"



"it wasn't fun, it was funny."



"it was?"



"yeah, someone tooted and we couldn't stop laughing."



"nice."



then he proceeded to laugh the rest of the way home.

note to self...

this evening as zach and i were on our way home from an unproductive hunt for manila paper, he struck up a conversation about shooting stars. it amazes me how much he knows about stuff we've never talked about before.

the conversation took us through all the various aspects of shooting stars, from making wishes, to what stars are really made of. it didn't seem to bother him too much that any wish he made most likely would not come true... he was more interested in the anatomy of outer space. i'm no astronomer, but i did my best to answer what i could.

after the several moments of silence he took to ponder this new information... the conversation ended like this:

"mom, you need to make sure to remember to look out for shooting stars when we are in outer space."

"yep, that seems like a good thing to remember."

"i don't want us to get hit with a big ball of fire mom. will you remember to look out for shooting stars when we are in outer space."

"i'll do my best, zach."

"mom, i think you need to write it down when we get home."

"okay, will do."

oh no... there's a name for what i am

okay, yeah.... so i'm a twi-mom.

i'm not ashamed. or, maybe i am just a little.

needing something to get me through the three hour flight home, i picked up the first twilight novel in the albuquerque airport.

i had seen movie, and enjoyed it. though the novel was very similar to the movie... i found it much more intriguing. so, i picked up the second novel in the austin airport.

i read it that evening... unable to put it down.

it's not the norm for me to stay up past 10 pm at the latest. however, i couldn't go to sleep. i couldn't believe it when the clock read 5 am, as i finished 'new moon', and turned out the light. i fell in love with the characters.

it's written in first person narrative, so i believe that is why, as a reader, i was able to relate to the main character, bella. i'm not sure though, if i were a teen, i would have been able to feel what i felt while reading it.

maybe teens now-a-days are ready for this. but i would not have been.

besides the fun and mystical aspect of the supernatural... the romance is beyond anything i've ever read. yes, austenites.... even jane wasn't able to provoke the same raw gut wrenching emotions.

the next day i purchased the the final two books and had completed the entire saga by the end of the week. the second and fourth book are my favorites.

book one - twilight - is a prelude... getting to know the characters and relationship development

book two - new moon - is beyond words.... a heart breaking tear jerker

book three - eclipse - is more plot development

and book four - breaking dawn - is the ultimate ending. i cried tears of joy. okay, i sobbed. jerking.. violent... sobs.

really, i did.

don't shake your head at me... you don't know.

so. needless to say i am quite impressed with the author and wait in anxious anticipation with all the tweens for the release of the movie sequel.

if you can't wait either... you can enter to win premiere tickets here:
http://apps.facebook.com/twilightprizes/?refuid=585350339