Big Girl Erin

I definitely got a bit behind and I know I still need to post about Erin's birthday happenings. Between parties and having no air conditioning for a few days and doula-ing and starting kindergarten I just realized that I didn't even post on Erin's birthday 10 days ago!! Guess I am out of the running for Mom of the Year yet again this year. Damn it.

So this one will be about kindergarten and I will do more about birthday stuff this weekend. Erin started Wednesday. Up until that point if you'd asked her how she felt about that, she would've said excited, nervous and shy. She was very consistent with her answer. And it seemed pretty reasonable! My feelings were that she was completely ready, that I was going to the perfect school for her, and that I was going to miss her terribly!!

For her birthday I got her a clip on desk lamp and a small clock, both for her bed. The idea was that I could tell her what time she was supposed to turn her light off and she would be responsible for making sure the light went off at the right time. I thought she would really like this idea and she was very excited about it. The clock is actually a really small alarm clock but I never intended to use it for that. Anyway, the night before her first day of school I told her that she had to turn her light off at 8:50. She asked for her little pad of paper and crayon and she wrote that down. She then asked me what time she would be waking up. I told her 7:15, and then she wrote that down and circled it. I wasn't sure what her reasoning was, but I let it go. Sure enough when I checked on her around 8:55 her light was off and she was totally asleep. The next morning as she was eating breakfast I aked her if she looked at her clock and turned her light off at 8:50. She said, "Yep! And I checked my pad to be sure it was the right time!" She wrote it down to be sure she had the right time. Then, this morning (day two) I went in her room and quietly started saying, "Erin, time to wake up!" She immediately turned over, obviously already awake. She said , "It never said seven-one-five." I asked, "What deos it say now?" She said, "seven-one-four." I told her she could wait until it said seven-one-five and then get up. About a minute later, she showed up in the kitchen ready to eat breakfast! She's cracking me up with this clock/time thing. I hope I didn't create a monster!
We got out the door as planned and to school on time. She was fine getting out the car and off she went for the first day!! I thought I was fine but I did get a little blubbery as we pulled away. It wasn't that I didn't want her to be that old or that I was afraid she wasn't ready. It was just that I didn't want to miss anything that was going to happen for the next 12 years!! Jillian and I did a little retail therapy at Target and I recovered quickly. (But just to be sure we stopped at Half Price Books too.) Then Mimi and Grandpa distracted us a bit at Chick-Fil-A. So the day flew by and we left again at 2:30 to pick Erin up. When she got in the van she said one of her best friends from camp was in her class! It made me SO glad she spent that week at camp; she was only there for 5 days, and she may have only played with this little girl a little bit. But if it was in her mind that she had a best friend at school on the first day it was totally worth it!! Erin's never one to offer much information but she told quite a bit about her day and she was very happy to go back today. She is exauhsted when she gets home and is a little thrown off by the small amount of time she actually has at home. She can't beleive when it is already time for bath and bed. But I have a feeling that she will start to be less tired after school and have a little more playtime eventually.
I am trying to put together a slideshow of pictures so this post is photo-less. Mark's off tomorrow so maybe I will get a little time to add more in the morning.But I knew that if I didn't post something soon I was going to hear about it :) So there's something to wet your appetite.

Countdown to Kindergarten

Today was school supply shopping day! I am sure this will come as a major surprise to all of you, but this was my all-time favorite thing about starting a new school year - NEW SCHOOL SUPPLIES!! Sharp crayons, vivid markers, blank thick notebooks, school boxes whose lids were not permanently shoved into the tops ... Ahhhh, paradise! But I digress. Erin most enjoyed picking out the folders, which ended up being one horsey and one puppy. She also was very satisfied by going in order down the list and checking off each item we found. Mission accomplished! The kindergarten may commence!
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Like father like daughter

I am out with my lovely husband vacuum shopping (go ahead . . . Awww, how romantic) We need a very efficient one for all the vacuuming we'll be doing now that Erin has finally done her allergy testing. The allergist - who was SUPER nice - said that only ten percent of kids her age have allergies as severe as hers and gave us all kinds of suggestions for things we should be doing to improve her coughing and throat clearing. (I was only slightly offended when he mentioned that I should be vacuuming at least twice a week. We had only just met and he couldn't have possibly known my impeccable housekeeping habits.) Anyway, I'll spare you the list of things Erin is allergic to and let it suffice to say that if it blooms, seeds, molts or has four legs the answer is yes.
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