On His Own

These are some random pictures from a recent visit to The Avenue outdoor mall in Murfreesboro. Carter loves the fact that there is a store with his name. He wants to go there all the time!

So I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had an earlier school-induced "situation", if you will. Let me expound on that...

It was the second day of school. Now, most of you know how Type A I am, so you know I had read the Nolensville Elementary School website from top to bottom approximately 12 times over the summer. I knew EXACTLY what I was supposed to do to get Carter to and from school. Afterall, I didn't want to be THAT parent and set my kid up for failure from the very beginning of the year. So...the first day of school we were allowed to walk our children in to school. Great...no problems with that process. After the first day, I asked his teacher just to confirm what I had read on the website as to the process for drop-off for the remainder of the school year. She confirmed that we drop the kids off at the doors at the back of the building. There would be teachers and aids there to assist the children to their class. Perfect! We were ready for the second day.

So...off we go. As we are pulling up to the building and the sea of children pouring into the building, I begin to notice there does not seem to be very much organization in the drop off process and there doesn't seem to be a lot of supervision going on other then a traffic guard keeping kids from being run over by late-for-work parents. Hmmm...this is where more of a rebel-parent, if you will, would say, "Screw this, I'm walking my kid in the building. I don't care what they say I can and can't do." But not me! Oh no! I put on my best smile and look back at my tiny, intimidated kindergartener, open the door and say, "Okay, Carter. Here we are. Go ahead and get out and go to your room." He looked at me with those big, scared, blue eyes and said with a shaky voice, "Okay."

As he got out of the car and started to unassuredly walk toward the door it was as if he were in slow motion while the world around him was speeding up. He looked over his shoulder at me as if to say, "What the heck have you gotten me into?" But then he turned around and kept walking toward the door.

It was at that point that I couldn't take it anymore. So I rolled the window down and motioned to the traffic guard. I asked if anyone would be assisting the kids to their rooms. He replied no. I told him that we were new to the school and my son was just in kindergarten. His reply..."Oh! If he's in kindergarten you should walk him in for the first few days until he gets used to it! You can pull around front and park and go in and try to find him."

What!?! Why don't they clearly state that on the website, for the love of pete!! I just sent my defenseless, little boy off into the abyss by himself for no good darn reason? What the heck?

As my heart sank into my stomach and my stomach began to make it's way north into my throat, I raced around the front of the building, yanked Sarah out of her seat and ran (well, the best running you can do in heels with a 30 lb toddler on your hip) through the school to the very back wing of the school where Carter's room is located. The whole way, which strangely seemed to grow longer with each step I took, I kept imagining seeing my lost, scared, fragile child standing somewhere in a forgotten hallway crying, scarring him for life. The mere thought of it caused tears to well up in my eyes.

What I found when I reached his room was Carter, sitting at his table, backpack put away, talking with his teacher and getting his assignment for his morning work. Wow...he really is growing up. He really didn't need me. Tragedy diverted. He didn't even notice that I was at the window. As I stood there for a few moments another frazzled mom (in her jammies) with a toddler on her hip ran up to the window. The frightened look on her face was familiar. I said, "Did you let your child off at the back door, too?" She breathlessly said, "Yes, then they said I should come in and check on him."

At that moment I felt that somewhere, possibly in the principal's office, there was a group of school administrators watching the security cameras and laughing as they successfully initiated another group of parents into the world of the public school system. Shouldn't there be laws against hazing? Thank goodness the rest of the year I will be dropping Carter off in the cafeteria for before-school care with the YMCA Fun Company. They require children to be walked in and signed in each and every morning...ah, rules, how I love thee so.

First Homework

Carter recently had to complete his first ever homework project! He was to create a store front out of a shoe box that started with the first letter of his name (this was in conjunction with nursery rhyme week and Wee Willie Winkie). Jason and I had to resist the urge to take over and make his store what we thought it should be so we just sat and supervised while he created "Carter's Critters" (a pet shop) complete with little toy lizards crawling out of the front door.

The next morning when we took it into school I got to experience my first school-induced parental guilt episode (well, that's actually not true...I had an even more guilt-ridden situation arise on the second day of school...stay tuned for that story). Carter was so proud of his store and marched it right in and placed in next to two others that were already on display...a bike shop complete with tiny model bikes, a real shingled roof and brick-papered walls. And a car lot complete with matchbox cars and REAL working lights inside the store...Yes, REAL lights!

Thankfully, the teacher made a big deal over Carter's store and he didn't seem to notice the level of skill displayed by the rival stores. I, on the other hand, nearly started to hyperventilate and tearfully called Jason as soon as I got in the car. He was able to bring me down before I drove my car straight into a tree and explained the obvious to me, which I knew to be true but just needed to hear it to believe it...obviously, their parents did WAY more then "assist" their children in building their store (which was stated in the directions) and obviously, the teacher was able to tell that Carter did his all on his own. I know that's true but it didn't make it any easier to see his little model there next to these architectural masterpieces. Good thing Carter is such a confident little toot...he was completely unphased.

First Haircut

Sarah got her first hair cut at the end of August. She was almost 2 years old...and even then she hardly had enough hair to really cut. As Brantley and the girls at the shop said...they just trimmed up Sarah's mullet. Aw. Bless her heart. Someday I'm sure her beautiful blond locks will be long and flowing...they're just having a little problem getting started in life. Her hair looked so cute after the cut that I was sorry I had waited so long to let Brantley convince me it really needed to be trimmed.

She sat so still the whole time. She held onto my "leeper" (that's lip gloss) and just watched Brantley in the mirror while he trimmed up her hair. She's really a girly girl...she loves lip gloss, jewelry, shoes and her newest addiction..."make-pups". She often comes into the bathroom while I am getting ready and says, "Make-pups, Mommy? I sit counter." She likes to sit on the counter and have me put make up on her. Such a diva!

Boo!

Yes, we are still alive! Things have been crazy busy this month (yes, I am aware that it has been nearly a month since I posted). Did they change October to only last a week and 3 days this year and not tell me because this month has just flown by! Some of the highlights from this month have been: Carter starting his first season of basketball, a trip to Disney World (in which we DROVE for the first time) and, of course, Halloween! More on the first 2 subjects to come. But I will briefly discuss Halloween even though pictures from tonight's festivities are still on the camera...the camera is sitting approximately 50 feet from me, for the record, but I am just too exhausted (okay, lazy) to get up and get it. So stay tuned for the pics.

We started our Halloween celebration at 3:00 with a trip to Olan Mills to get the kids' Halloween pictures taken. They were dressed this year as a vampire complete with white face paint and a trickle of blood running down his chin, and a vampiress (is that a word?)...no face paint for her. Every time I started to put it on she said, "No mommy, no pace paint."

After the pictures were taken we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner then to the mall for trick or treating...what a great concept! Stand at the front of your store, hand out candy to 750,000 kids and coupons to their parents...genius! After we stopped at a few stores Carter was over it (I had to agree with him...it's just not trick-or-treating unless you are running through the cold, dark night with a runny nose and wet shoes) so we headed to our old neighborhood to visit Brantley and Fouse and some of our old neighbors. He had a ball there and it was good to see all of our old friends. We actually trick-or-treated at our old house and I had to resist the urge to walk right in the front door like I owned the place, afterall, I did own the place for a long time...old habits die hard!

Sarah opted to stay with "Banteee" while Carter and I walked around the neighborhood. She thought trick-or-treating was just too "'cary" even though she totally understood the concept. When I gave her her candy bucket while we were still at home she took it and said, "Tick or teat, put canny my bucket. Tank ewe!" She would have been a candy grabbing machine! But she got some good quality time with the guys so she was happy.

We got home at almost 9:00pm...for those of you that know the inner workings of my household that is WAY late! My kids are both in bed by approx. 7:00 pm nearly every night so thank the good Lord that we roll the clocks back tonight!

After a mega bath to wash off all that face paint and the goo out of Carter's hair (oh yeah, his hair was all slicked back) and tooth brushing with, as Sarah calls it, "poo pace"...that is toothpaste if you don't speak Sarah...it was off to bed with the whole family!

V's or B's?

The way Sarah says things just cracks me up. Today, for instance, she wanted to wear her jacket to school since it was a little chilly in the morning. After I gave her the jacket she held up her hands and said, "Need my glubs, too." I smiled and said, "I don't think it's quite cold enough for gloves today."

Later that night while we were reading her bedtime story, she pulled on her jammy sleeves and said, "My pull up my sleebes."

I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Always Fighting

Although you wouldn't be able to tell from this picture, the kids are fighting more and more these days. We got Sarah this art easel for her birthday for 2 reasons. One, she loves art and two, it has 2 sides. So the idea was for them to be able to do an activity together yet seperate. See the logic there?

But, oh no, what do they want to do? Color on the same side! Which worked for approximately 3.2 seconds (just long enough to snap this picture). Then came the wailing and gnashing of teeth over who was coloring on whose picture and who got to hold the eraser.

I know this is to be expected but it still gets old fast. A very common line of conversation in our house these days goes something like this:

Sarah (whiny): "Carter hit (kicked, punched, etc) me!" or "No Carter! 'Top it!"
Mommy (irritable): "What are you guys doing!"
Carter (pleading and innocent): "I didn't do it! Really!"
Mommy (now visibly frustrated and screetching): "If you two can't play nice together then stay away from each other!"

I love my life.

Best Buds

We met up with some of the kids from Carter's preschool class a couple of weeks ago. Carter got to see his best bud, Preston, again for a few hours. They had a ball despite all the rain. You can see they are all wet...Carter is covered in mud, not sure how that happened but they still had fun.