And the Oscar goes to. . .

I am so enjoying this new daughter I have, you know, the one who reads. I know that it is not a huge thing because most everyone learns to read. I know that tons of children learned to read when they were younger than Jessa. I am sure that there are tons of kids who can read with more fluency than Jessa. I know that she is not inventing the wheel here. But you see, she is MINE. My first baby to go to school. My first baby to be able to crawl up in my lap with a book and read it to me. It just blows my mind. This big girl who is so long these days that her legs barely fit into my lap anymore started out as my sweet, tiny baby only, well, yesterday. How did it happen so fast? I mean, she was a baby, and now she is reading her baby book to me. My head hurts. My heart hurts.

So the reading thing is still so incredible to me. But lately, she has been cracking me up. See, her teacher, you know, the smartest most wonderful Queen of everything? You should never ever question Jessa's teacher, OK? Got it? Well, her teacher is helping them figure out punctuation and how to read with feeling, or expression, as Jessa calls it. And y'all, she is so funny! When she sees an exclamation point, she hollers that last word to make sure she gives that punctuation appropriate attention. Oh, and the way she makes her voice go up at the end of sentence with a question mark is priceless. Intonation is important - even when you are reading Dr. Seuss or The Grumpy Easter Bunny.


Oh and there is the "effect" thing. She does things all the time now for effect. Like in the middle of a book, she will make random gestures to make her point, and she explains that she did it, you know, for effect. Oh and she always points out that she is reading with "expression." In case you do not notice that she is using expression, she will tell you, darn it. She is so focused on all these newly learned reading rules that listening to her read a story is just, oh so much fun! And she has started wanting to read things twice. Like the first time is a dress rehearsal, and the second time, she is on it! The punctuation, the expression, the effect. She is ready for her close-up.

If there was an Oscar for best expression, effect, and use of punctuation in a Kindergarten reader, she would be a SHOE IN.


I also must share with you one last small note on these newly expanded abilities. She is an expert and darn big for her britches.

Apparently, the Kindergartners are having some trouble with punctuation. According to her teacher, you know, the smartest woman alive, they were saying the punctuation when they were reading. So Mrs. K has been really drilling it home that punctuation is not to be read aloud. You see the period, you pause. You see the exclamation point, you shout the last word and pause. You see a question mark, your voice gets really high. Get it?

Well, Jessa sure did.
The other day I had just about had it. My sweet babies were at each other's throats and tattling on each other and basically driving me absolutely nuts. I was in the kitchen trying to get something done. I had been fussing at them here and there, hoping to avoid really getting upset. I finally realized that being really upset was unavoidable. So I stormed into the den where they were on the verge of a knock down drag out fight.

OK. Mommy time. I raised my voice and recounted all of their transgressions. I told them they needed to get along. I said I was frustrated. They were driving me crazy. We are a family, dang it! We love each other! And that I did not want to have to come in there again. You know, the usual Mommy speech with lots of gestures for effect and oh so much expression, let me tell you. I ended my performance with, "I have had it! Y'all need to get along and stop fighting. PERIOD. I MEAN IT!"


I was pretty pleased with my little lecture. And it looked like it worked. They were quiet and appeared to be listening. And at that moment, they were not pulling each other's hair out . I was about to turn to exit the den, triumphantly. Then my sweet Jessa raised her hand, alerting me that she had something to say. Would it be an apology? Had my words moved her to see where she went wrong? I was so prepared to listen to the wise tidbit that my daughter was about to share with me. I was sure that she was about to admit the error of her ways and of course, praise me for all the great points I made that led her to this self-analysis. She loves me and she loves her brother and I am the best. Wow, I am a great mom, and she is about to prove it.

And then she said it.

Jessa: Um, Mommy?
Me: Yes, my Jessa.
Jessa: Yeah, Mrs. K says that you are not supposed to actually say the word period.
Just pause and keep going, OK.
*PAUSE*
Me: I realize that, honey, but sometimes grown-ups need to say the word.
You know, for effect.

Bay in Kindergarten

Bay? Really? What in the world could he have done to get sent back to Kindergarten?
Well, I will tell you.

Bay got to go on a super cool, I mean, serious work trip in January to the South Pole. My kids were psyched when he came home with pictures of all of his travels. OK, they mostly liked the pictures with penguins in them. So Jessa said, "Can Bay come to my school and show my class?" I did not want to impose. My compromise was that I would print a penguin picture, and she could take it and share it with her class. She did, and I explained it all to her teacher in a note.

The picture that started it all. . .

The next time I saw her teacher at school, she asked if Bay would be interested in coming to talk about his trip. So maybe it was not an imposition after all. Long story short, after a few weeks, many notes, and a false pregnancy announcement, last Friday, Bay went back to Kindergarten. He was set to speak to ALL 5 Kindergarten classes (about 135 kids!).

Spencer and I went too. Partly because I felt responsible for getting him into the whole thing, and partly because I am nosey and I hate to miss ANYTHING. . . And Spencer went because he had to (but he LOVES going to Jessa's school anytime). I must tell you that the 2 hours that we were rotating between the classes were absolutely priceless. Here are some highlights.

Bay thought a creative way to explain the South Pole was to contrast it with the North Pole. He learned that this was not a great idea because the first 25 questions related to Santa, reindeer, and presents. Lesson learned. He did not use that idea any more. And NO, he did not get to meet Santa Claus!

The questions were so precious. Jessa asked a question about the temperature at the South Pole. OK, she actually asked, "Did you freeze your tookus off?" He laughed and said, "Good question. Yes, it was very cold! 20 degrees below zero - in the summer!" One little boy raised his hand and said, "Do you mean Minus 20?" He said, "Uh, yes, I guess I do." Get it straight, Bay!

There was one slide that he put in to discuss the communications with the South Pole.

I have edited it to protect the identities of the people I do not know.

(Again, forgive my editing, I do not own photo shop nor do I have any idea what I am doing. . .)

So EVERY time he put this slide up, at least one, but usually several kids said,

"Hey, look, there's a dog!"

Did you notice the dog?

Because I did not!

But every class, Daddy had to explain that it was a toy dog because pets are not allowed at the South Pole. Cracked me up!

This speech was at an elementary school adjacent to an AFB, right? Most all of the kids are somehow connected to the Base. Most all of their parents are in the military, right? Well, in one class, a girl raised her hand. Bay pointed to her and said "Yes ma'am?" She said, "My mom is in the Air Force." Bay said, "OK, great." The next 5 hands were the same general idea: "My dad is in the air force." "My mom is in the air force." "My dad is in the army," so at that point Bay said, "Raise you hand if your mom OR dad are in the air force, army, navy, marines?" Whew! That could have gone on ALL DAY! One girl had a slightly different comment, she said, "I want to be in the Army." So Bay told her, "OK, I will send a recruiter right on over!"

At one point, someone asked if there were seals at the South Pole. Bay replied, "Yes." The boy said, "Oh, well, I did not see any pictures of any seals." Bay said, "Uh, well, I did not take any pictures of the seals." The boy said, "Well, why didn't you take any pictures of any seals?" Bay, "Uh, well, I guess I blew it." Priceless!

The kiddos were crazy observant in all the pictures, not just the dog one. They were picking little details out of pictures that we looked over. This picture for instance - it was taken at the Rookery where there were thousands of penguins with baby penguins.

Bay is pointing out that over his shoulder are tons of penguins. And everywhere you see a little black dot, that is a penguin. And again, EVERY class had at least one kid who said, "Look at that bird." Yep, they were focused on the bird flying just behind Bay! I never even noticed that bird until the first class. . .

And when he told them about the sun never going down while he was there, one child was very concerned about that. She asked, "Well, how did you know when to go to bed?" Bay assured her that all you had to do was look at your watch to figure that out.

But perhaps my favorite funny of the day came from my very own child. During the third class, Spencer leaned over and whispered, "Hey Mom, how come Bay keeps saying the same thing over and over and over?" Bless his heart! He knew he had heard this speech before! He was looking for some new material, dontcha know!?

All in all, I think Bay's presentation was a hit. He got several "That was awesome"s as we headed to the next group! Jessa was super proud of her Bay (although she referred to him as her grandfather to keep from confusing everyone)! And Spencer and I loved going from class to class with him. And after it was all over, Bay said he thoroughly enjoyed it! Maybe getting sent back to Kindergarten is not always a bad thing. . .

A new chapter

Kindergarten is way different than when I went. I have a few vivid memories. Like we tasted stuff with a blindfold once to decide if it was salty, sour, or sweet. I also remember these blow up letter things for each letter of the alphabet that came to visit us each week. And I liked it. My teacher was nice.

Fast forward 29 years, Jessa is doing geometry and fractions and sight words and computer lab. It makes my head spin. I mean, my unbiased opinion as her mother is that she is really smart. And I am a great judge, right? (hee-hee!) But I am in awe of all the stuff that they are doing - and that she is retaining.

She was the class librarian a few weeks ago. She got to bring a book and read it to the whole class. She practiced it all week. She even called and read it over the phone to May and Bay. She was so excited! She got to sit in the big chair and even use the microphone. I was so proud and impressed.

And recently, when we read stories at bedtime, she is reading to me and Spencer. It is incredible. I mean, I know that all kids learn to read and she is not unique in that. But she is MY first baby to learn how to read. So TO ME, she is remarkable and brilliant and incredible!

She is so proud of herself and doing such a fantastic job. And she loves it. She enjoys it. She wants to keep at it and get better.

I love nothing more than to be in her bed at night with both of them in my lap, listening to her sound out and "attack" words she does not know. I love watching how confidently she reads her "popcorn words" that she has learned so well. It is so special and so amazing.

Now, we have embarked on a new era. She has picked out her first chapter books. Yes, chapter books! We told Bay, and he asked, "What's a chapter book?" Oh Bay! Jessa could not believe that he was so behind the times! I picked out Junie B. Jones for her. I think she will LOVE those. She is not too keen on this series yet, but I think once we read it, it will win her over. She chose Ready Freddy. Her teacher's son reads them, so her teacher sometimes shares them with the class. She cannot get enough.

And they both hang on every word. They get so bummed when I tell them that is enough for now. I mean we cannot read all night, can we?!

I am so excited about this new chapter, chapter books, a kid who can read, oh my!

THE BIG K: part 2 (bus)

Once she woke up good, I could barely get Jessa to eat this morning. Once the big kids bus left, she wanted to RUN across the street to the bus stop. I am THRILLED that the bus stop is directly across the street from our house. This makes it easier for me to honor her request to not embarrass her. My instructions were,"Mommy, you just stay on your side of the street, OK?" She wanted me inside the house, but I could not do that! Then she decided outside was alright, as long as I stayed on the front porch. I did stay on my side of the street, but the kid's gotta cut me some slack!

David missed his first morning meeting today to be here for the bus. He has been a lot more sentimental about all of this than I thought he would. I think he is just so thankful that he is actually here for some important days. So often, he is not. And we are both very aware of all of our friends who are deployed right now and missing first days with their children.

She said I could take a picture of her BUT only from my side of the street.

I made her pose with her Daddy and you can see that she was NOT happy about it.

She enjoyed her bus stop visiting time immensely. She also chatted her head off with the kids AND the other parents who were actually allowed to be at the bus stop.


She did holler at us across the street several times. She wanted a sweater. It was in the silly girl's backpack the whole time, but I was glad to be allowed to run across and show it to her. That was the only chance I had to steal a hug. . . And I left Spencer in the bed, but he wandered outside. When she saw him, she ran across the street to give him a kiss (like I needed another excuse to get all choked up).

And then it happened.

The bus was here.

She climbed on and searched for a seat for at least 27 minutes.

David made fun of me for taking pictures because the windows are tinted. But it is her. Can't you see her profile?
Seriously, the second she finally sat down, the bus pulled away.

I resisted the STRONG urge to climb on the bus and explain to the bus driver that he was carrying precious cargo. I figure he already knows that, right?

I did not cry until David, Spencer, and I saw the bus pull away and were walking in the house. David never knows what to do with me when I cry. I am OK, though. I really am. She is a big girl. I am proud she is so independent and confident. I am excited for her because I love seeing the world through her eyes. And boy is her world exciting right now. She is going to have so much fun. She is going to make so many new friends. See, I am OK.

Is it 3:00 yet?

THE BIG K: part 1

There are many milestones in the lives of our children. They are born, that's a big day. Then there are first words, first steps, first tooth, and every first is so special and important. And when you are holding that sweet new baby, you cannot even fathom how quickly the time is going to zoom by. Even though, I swear that I was just holding my sweet new baby girl, she started Kindergarten today. This is so hard! She has done preschool and Pre-K, but this is so much more real.

For weeks, when we talked about her first day, she told me that she was not going to cry, but that I would. The good news is that they sort of ease into things here. Today is the first day of school, but for Kindergarten, they have an open house the first day. This means that it is not a full day AND that your parents get to stay with you. Then on Friday, she will have her first real, full day of school. We are talking bus and everything.

So we got up and got ready to go. I will admit that tears were streaming down my face when I saw her bus pull up and pick up the bigger kids - and she was not even on it! I may need sedation tomorrow. . .

Doesn't that bus look too big for my baby?

I almost cry just looking at it, and she was not even on it!

A traditional "first day of school on the porch" shot.

It is required that all parents take photos like this. It's in the handbook. I checked.

We loaded up and went to the office. See, Spencer had a date with his Bay and Joyce (his awesome secretary) to hang while we took Jessa to the BIG K. So Spencer headed into the building, while David headed out.

She is only barely tolerating me and my camera at this point.

We parked across the street from school and crossed the street (after posing for a few pictures, of course) - aided by a real crossing guard.

We walked all the way into school and went to the Kindergarten hall.

We found her classroom - it looks inviting, huh??

It all happened so fast. It's a blur. It is all so new and overwhelming, but Jessa jumped right in. I started putting her supplies in the wrong class bins. Thank goodness I had David to keep me straight. Jessa was so calm. She marched right in there and found her LOCKER. Yes, my sweet 5 year old kindergartner has a locker! (She was over the moon about this.) She put her backpack in her very own locker and found her chair. She is at the green table. Her class number is 8. She has a mailbox for papers to bring home, a lunch pocket, and a discipline chart all with the number 8 on it. Her bus number is 7. I hope she does not bring home #7's papers and get on the #8 bus. Don't worry, the teacher said that they will pin an orange bus pass on her shirt tomorrow. Whew.

Everything is all labeled - Jessa just LOVES seeing her name everywhere!

There was a piece of paper at each place where they had to write their name and draw a picture of anything they wanted. She chose to write her name with curls. She is fancy that way. And then she drew a duck. (not a blue duck, but the Billy Madison fan in David was hoping) There was a lake that the duck was swimming in. The duck had a hat. There was even a crossing guard there to help the duck cross the stream. (why did I not take a picture of her drawing!? darn it!) David, the obnoxious, I mean, proud father that he is made sure to look at all the other drawings to see how Jessa's stacked up. He was pleased. But he was not at all biased, right??

Jessa hard at work and David checking out every one's progress.

We put away her gym shoes, her change of clothes, her beach towel, and her activity book into her locker. (it sounds like a strange list, but I am not questioning things.) And then it was time to say hello to her teacher and have her picture made.

After she cheesed for the camera, I told her it was time to go. If you could have seen the look on my sweet, excited Kindergartner's face - suffice it to say it was not happy. And she said in a not so nice tone, "We cannot leave now!! I have not even learned anything yet!" How dare we make her leave this house of learning? We were tickled at her earnest desire to hang around, but it quickly became frustrating as we walked the long road back to the car. She stopped speaking and pouted the entire way to the car. A few non-verbal growls came out of my precious angel. Just darling!

We had to hurry back to the office so that David could get back to work. AND I couldn't wait to check on Spencer and see how his visit with Bay and Miss Joyce went. It went well, I'd say. All the ladies in the office were fawning over him and he ate it up! I did love to walk into Bay's office and see Olivia on one of his big computer screens with Spencer kicked back in a chair eating a bowl of popcorn. They both wanted to hang with Bay and Miss Joyce all day. They were sad to leave. I am striking out all over the place today!!

Spencer loving the special attention he got with his Bay. The whole place was tickled to see cartoons on the chief of staff's computer.

AND I did not cry, much.

Now tomorrow.

Jessa at the bus stop.

Seeing the bus pull away.

No promises.

Registration is hard.

I tried to come up with a more clever title for this post, but I am quite frankly just too tired. I have been jumping through hoops all over town, all to get my precious baby ready to register for Kindergarten here in Illinois.

It is a little daunting considering that I am going to do this as a "new student" for these kiddos many more times. When Momma enrolled Lucas and me, it was once as new students in one system. We both started school in Clayton County, and we both graduated school in Clayton County. As much of a believer in Public School as I am, I will say that I have tossed around the words "home school" more than a few times the past week or so!

I have endured screaming at a doctor's office for a health check (and that was just in the parking lot when they realized where we were). Momma went with me to the pediatricain near her house. When we were doing the same thing being new to Hinesville, it took me more than a month to get a well child appointment since we were not "established." I decided to avoid that and take the Illinois forms to the pediatrician who has known these 2 since he checked on them in the hospital at their births! I checked and the Illinois people said that was OK. Jessa did have to have one more shot, and boy is she not a fan. We left the office before the forms were finished, and they promised to have the forms ready for me that day. Ha! I have spent hours on hold calling them trying to get it finished. Ugh. A week later, Mom picked them up and express mailed them to me.


In Illinois, you also have to have a dental form signed. No problem, we needed to find a new dentist here anyway. So I called, found one, they had a cancellation, score! Jessa is also not a fan of dentists. I think her reluctance is because she is such a control freak. She takes after me, I think. . . Good news, we got the form signed. Bad news, we have a couple cavities. Due to Jessa's "high spirit," and extreme dislike of dentists in general we were sent to another dentist. She (thankfully) decided that we will be having the "you are sound asleep cavity filling special" later in August.

In Illinois, you also have to have a vision test. And not the eye chart one at the pediatrician. We did that, too, but we had to see an actual optometrist for a real eye test. Can't make anything easy. . .She was panicked, but she did great! 20/20! Of course, my friend Kelly's little boy has glasses and he is precious. Momma was torn about whether or not she wanted Jessa to get to be cute, too!!



So after one pediatrician visit, two dental appointments, an optometrist appointment, countless phone calle, huge chunks of time on hold, fancy scheduling, a patient and helpful May, and one express mail package, today I walked into an elementary school and registered my sweet baby girl for KINDERGARTEN.



She is of course beside herself with excitement.
The bus! The new teacher! The new friends! The school supplies! The new clothes! The new backpack! The cafeteria!
I am so thrilled that she is so excited, and I am so proud of the little person that she has become. But I am also so torn because this is just the beginning. Before I know it, she will be going to dances and dissecting frogs and having crushes and learning locker combinations. Before I fall apart, I am just going to enjoy my Kindergartener and all the fun firsts for now.