Back to School

The school year in Kansas City generally goes from mid August to mid May. The school year in the rest of the country seems to go from September to June. As you could probably surmise, our children have had an extra long summer. We have kept them busy with the move, as well as a week at a time of day camp and tennis here and there, field trips to local sites, visits to the beach, playground, and library, and of course, time with the grandparents and aunt. Otherwise, they seem to be chomping at the bit to start school. I don't blame them. Most of the friends they have had all their lives have been from school. Although we have met children from the neighborhood and town, it is not quite the same as the friends one makes at school. Both the children, our son, especially, would benefit from hanging out with children their own age. As much as I like to play Lego, I just can't muster up the same kind of enthusiasm that his friends B and G did when he built the Indiana Jones Temple Escape from the ATAT kit (although I was truly impressed with him). So we are all very excited to start the school year and make new friends.

Of course, "back to school" means back to school shopping, which, although I used to relish as a child and adolescent, I now dread as a parent. When we were in Kansas City, the schools provided everything but the backpack and lunchbox. Our children are not yet at the age where clothes are a huge deal (although our daughter is getting there), so back to school shopping was very simple for us. Now, we have been given itemized lists of school supplies to purchase for the first day of school. Although I have been warned by other parents not to jump in right away to buy everything on the list, and just wait until after the first week of school to see what they REALLY need, we still went to Target to buy everything on the list anyway. The way I see it is that this is our first time at this new school. I want to make sure we are prepared. For the first year, what is a couple of notebooks extra if it means that my kids won't be the only one in class without the right color notebook? And I'm not exaggerating when I say the right color. We were given a list of colors of numbers of types of notebooks to be purchased. Also on the list were baby wipes (for both children), paper towels, tissues, plastic cutlery, plastic sandwich bags, and the usual pencils, crayons, markers, extra set of clothes, etc. Had I mentioned that we are already paying a nice sum for tuition to this school?

Nonetheless, we are all looking forward to school starting, especially my husband who has been home with the kids ever since I started work. He happens to start work the same day as the kids start school -perfect timing. As much as we have enjoyed our extra long summer, it will be nice to get into a routine.

The second and third weeks of my new job have gone better than the first week, which is good 'cause if things had kept up the way they were the first week, I would probably consider quitting. But I am enjoying the work, and feeling more comfortable being on my own and establishing a good routine.

What I like about my new job: having an office (shared, but an office nonetheless)

What I miss about my old job: having a locker. The women's lockers are all taken, and some are even shared. Most of the nurses are female, and thus make up the majority of the people who work in the OR. Good thing we have an office.

New Kid in Town

Today, I dropped off our 7-year old son at day camp. He had been at day camp in our old hometown, but this was his first day at the new camp. It has been about one month since his last day of camp back in Kansas City, and my husband and I thought it was time for him to start interacting with kids his age again. It has been great having all this family time together, but we wanted to make sure our son was not regressing by spending so much one-on-one time with his little sister. So we signed him up for one week of day camp (ooh, don't get too ambitious, Map! A whole week, really?).

This morning's drop off went okay. First, we had to find it. We had no problem driving to the location, but once there, had to find the specific drop off site. We peered into a noisy room, and found what appeared to be the summer day camp meeting place. With both the children in tow, I approached a girl with a clipboard. She cheerfully said, "Yes this is the day camp. We start the activities in about half an hour; in the meantime he can go play." Go play? I looked around and saw neither toys nor sports equipment. Just a bunch of kids sitting in small groups, seemingly divided into age groups. They were talking and laughing amongst each other. Oooh. There is a group of kids his age. Hmm what are they all looking at, as I noticed the members of a small group circled around one boy. Then, I turned to the cheerful, though not necessarily hospitable camp counselor, and asked, "Are there any children my son's age whom you can introduce him to?" "Oh, sure! John, Danny, come here and meet, umm, what is your son's name?" I told her, and the boys came over, and were very friendly. They then ran off chasing each other over a hula hoop. Hmm. This is gonna be a little more difficult than I thought. I asked my son if he wanted to stay, and he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, lets go over to where those boys are playing, and see if you can join them." Without hesitation, he walked over, with me and his sister behind him, but once there, he clearly he did not look comfortable just joining the other kids, which I totally understand. Then, another counselor came over, and introduced herself. "Sara" talked to my son directly, asking him questions about himself. "Do you have a DS? A lot of the other boys like to play with their DS." Ah, that is what they were fascinated with over there. She proceeded to ask my son questions, and relay her new found information to the group of kids. "Oh wow, you are from Kansas? Cool!" the other children remarked. They seemed like a nice group of kids. I could sense my son feeling more at ease. Or was that me feeling more at ease?

I told my son it was time for me and his sister to go, and he seemed okay with it -not clingy, as I had anticipated he might be. "Maybe tomorrow I can bring my DS." "Maybe. Let's see how today goes. Have a great day," I said, as I kissed his forehead (oops, as soon as I did that, I realized I should have asked him first, as per our previous experiences with goodbye kisses from Mom in front of his friends back home . . . you know how boys this age get!). He didn't seem to mind the kiss this time, and said, "Okay. Bye, Mom."

I was very proud of him. I, myself, am pretty anxious about the move and being in unfamiliar surroundings, and may not have done as well if I had been in his shoes (we'll see how I do on my first day back in the OR after my month+ hiatus). We pick him in up in about an hour. Can't wait to see how the day went.