So you have another little brother. You turned five and a half on the day we brought him home, and you started school a week later! For a kid that has always liked routine and daily expectations, it's been a lot for you to handle. And a bit much for mama's post-partum emotions.
Of the two major changes, you definitely prefer your brother to school. You adore your new little brother and are always wanting to hold him. You talk about how "calm" he is, and how he is your favorite family member.
But school is hard. I actually didn't cry on your first day of kindergarten (I already had after your kindergarten orientation the week prior), but I did when you started getting in trouble the second day of school (and the fourth) and started saying you didn't want to go back to school. Not once in two years of pre-school did you resist going to school, so it was tough to hear you say these things. I LOVED school. Apparently, your father, did not, and you're taking after him. You are in a mixed age kindergarten and first grade class room, and it is hard for you to follow directions immediately. From anyone. But, now that we're a couple weeks in you are doing a lot better. Some days you still come home saying you didn't like school and you missed me, but other days you have some good things to tell me about your day. You seem to like art class. You were excited about going to the school library (and getting your first "punch" on your behavior ticket). You found out you can eat breakfast in the cafeteria and are getting good at going through the lunch line some days (I think the lunch ladies are going to be your favorite). You have been getting strawberry milk as often as you can (which is $0.65 a carton!), and realized they have cookies for sale by the register. You seem to have made a couple friends, though you refer to them as your "shoulder partner" and the "bad kid's shoulder partner" and can't seem to remember their names. And on the sixth day of school, all was made better when you said "you loved school" and reported that you didn't get in trouble that day (though you did "think about me" during DEAR time).
As you go into your second half of being five, I hope that you learn to love school, become a ferocious reader, still enjoy your baby brother and enjoy soccer season which is starting up. I pray than you'll find other games to play than just capturing bad guys, and you'll pick friends who will be great influences on you (because you are easily influenced). And I pray that your kind heart will shine through your "tough guy" exterior,. Because I know it is still in there even if it has been getting covered up in layers of "boyness" lately. (And I promise to finish reading "Wild Things" so I can understand you more as you are increasingly moving out of my zone of understanding as you enter your boyhood.)
2 comments:
I teared up a little for you. That's awful! Poor Theo, and poor Mama and her postpartum emotions. Liam has a new "friend" who has hit him and bit him in the first week of preschool...it's so hard to know what to do and to send your baby somewhere he doesn't want to be. Good Luck Theo! May he find his Shannon, Mariah, Ashley group early!
It was a rough week for sure! It seems to be going better now... he still refers to his friends as his "face partner", "shoulder partner", or the ones who he sits with on the bus. Names are not his thing. But I've been to the school three times now and other kids sure know his name (hopefully not because the teachers are having to call it too often). I may have to keep having lunch with him once a week just so the chatty little girls can fill me in on how he's really doing in class (they are good for that). He has started enacting a lot of school play with Elijah now, so it can't be that bad if he pretends to have school with his brother.
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