How I ended up on a field trip with forty kindergarteners

Today, Hannah danced around the house singing "Daddy comes home tomorrow! Daddy comes home tomorrrrooooooow! YAY! Only one more day. Daddy comes home tomorrooooooowwww!" Man, she has missed him so much. The other two were unhappy at first, but by now, they're just accepting the fact that Dad's been gone all week. Hannah , on the other hand, has not only been very sad, sulky, and unhappy, reminding us every so often that Daddy's gone, has also used it to her advantage. She managed to play the "Daddy's-not-home-and-I'm-really-sad-so-will-you-go-on-my-field-trip-to-the-orchard-with-me-card?"

"Daddy's not home. When will Daddy get home?" She asked for the umpteenth time.

"Not until Sunday," I replied

"when is Sunday?" She inquired, again, for the umpteenth time.
"Let's sing your Days of the week song," I answered again, for the umpteenth time. This was becoming our daily ritual all week, several times a day.

We sang the days of the week to the tune of the Adams family theme, her little fingers trying to snap at the right places. After a bit, she gave up and clapped instead.

"Five more days?" She calculated.

"Yes, five more days," I confirmed.

"I'm sad," Hannah lamented.

"I know," I sympathized. I was tired and already feeling like this week would never end.

"So, will you pick me up so I can pick an apple when we go on the field trip?"

"Um, I'm not sure I'll have to pick you up." Oh crap, I guess I'm chaperoning the kindergarten to the orchard. Must call teacher to see if it's too late to go along, I thought to myself.

"Why?" Hannah asked, puzzled.

"Well, they might not let you pick an apple. Or if they do, the tree might have low branches," I explained.

"You can taste the cider too"

"Oh? We get to taste cider?"

"Yup. Too bad Daddy can't taste the cider," She said all forlorn.

"Yeah," I sympathized again.

"I'm so sad," she repeated.

"I know."

And that's how she snookered me into the field trip this past Thursday.

Peanut in Kindergarten, Pt 2.

This past week we had open house at the kids school. I went to Hannah's open house. Jeremy went to the other kids' open house. I got my first glimpse of Hannah-the-student from her teacher.

Apparently, one day a little girl in her class had a birthday. She wore a birthday crown. Hannah came into the classroom dancing and singing "Celebrate Good Times! COM'MON!"

I also discovered why she has had an intense interest in learning to snap. They sing the days of the week song to the tune of the "Adam's Family" theme.
Afterward I took a look at the artwork on the walls of the hallway. There was an entire row of papers that said “My name is… and I like…”
Almost all of the papers went something like this:

“My name is Olivia and I like apples”
“My name is John and I like dogs.”
“My name is Angela and I like kittens.”
And of course, they all copied after another, so almost all of the kids liked apples, dogs or kittens.
Except one.

“My name is Hannah. And I like…hair.”
She drew a picture of someone with HUGE hair...piles and piles of hair.
In another art project, they traced their bodies, and then drew a face, clothes, etc. She gave herself blue hair.

The other day Hannah came home with a paper she didn't finish in school. It had a stamp on it saying, "Please finish and return." I asked her, "Why didn't you finish this?" She replied with a serious 'tude, "Because I didn't feel like it."

She rarely talks about school. I asked her once if she liked it. She said she did. I asked her if she had any friends. She said "One." I asked, "What's her name?" She said, "I dont know. I forget." One day in the car, Hannah just randomly said to no one, in the middle of a totally unrelated conversation, "I sit at the blue trapppppppppa-zoid table. What's a trapezoid?"

So, apparently she's the class clown, which is nothing less than I expected. She's a normal kindergartener, which is all I could ask for. And she doesnt remember the details of her day, which doesn't surprise me at all.

Welcome to Kindergarten, Hannah

Here they are, waiting to go.

A close up of Hannah. See how happy she is to go to Kindergarten?

They mailed home this letter with these goofy stickers. The sticker would coordinate with the teacher's big goofy sign. Hannah had a big orange number two sticker.

"Oh look, you have a goofy orange number two on your shirt too! We must be in the same class."

We had to wait in line to enter the building.

Once inside, I wanted her to pose again. She was too distracted and excited to stay still. Then the batteries to my camera died before I got a picture of her in line with her class and teacher. Phooey.

_____________________________________

Tonight she told me all about school. She made a cupcake and put it on her birth date. "So, when is your birthday, Hannah?" I asked.
"June 30th," she replied.
"No it's NOT," answered Ruthie. "It's the 18th!"
"Oh yeah. I forgot," Hannah giggled.
"So then, what else did you do today?" I asked.
"I sat on the big blue carpet and we talked about our family and pets," she said.
"Do you have a locker?"
"Yes, and a cubbie."
"What was your special?"
"Computers. I played a game with bugs in it."
"How was lunch?"
"Good. I wasn't very thirsty though."
"Did you make any friends?"
"Yeah. One girl."
"What was her name?"
"I don't remember. But I sat next to her at lunch."
Sounds like she had a very good first day. She's looking forward to going back tomorrow.

Random mumblings

Well, I can take a big, deep breath now. I finished dying all 30 something of my skeins of yarn for the big project at school. Jeremy video taped me while I was dying, without my consent. But then, I saw how funny he was, so I allowed him to upload it. Just silly, very silly. I had just come home from teaching swimming lessons, my hair was wet, and I was wearing my very attractive dye clothes. I'm trying hard to not let that bother me.

And for anyone worried about the tri-beam scale being on my kitchen counters while I was doing my dying, don't. I was just measuring salt, common house-hold table salt. Hardly a toxic chemical. I mix and measure the really powdery stuff outside (brrrrr!). All my containers and measuring equipment is kept separate from my cooking/kitchen stuff. I'm very anal. Normally I do my dying outside, but since there is still snow on the ground, I was forced to do part of the process in my kitchen. Nothing goes in my kitchen unless it's already in liquid form, except the salt.

I use mostly fiber reactive dyes. They're cold-water, and relatively safe, chemical-wise. Just the power from the dyes is very light and airborne. I always wear a dust mask when I use them. I never would measure those in my kitchen.

I'm really pleased with the results. I will post a picture of the skeins once they are dry.

On the family side of things, Ruthie has to go to the doctor today. Her fever is better, but now that we're past the 72 hour mark, the dr wants to see her, the school wants a doctor's excuse. Joshua still feels pretty lousy too. It was a shame. The Mr had gotten free tickets to a jazz concert last night, but he and the kids couldnt go due to the illness. We just wanted Joshua to see a live jazz concert. Hopefully we can do something before Jazz Fest is over.

So, now I need a vacation...a long one. Between being up with sick kids, being up late dying fiber, trying to keep going, I'm ready to keel over. I'm just going to sleep the summer away. I can just feel it. May 12th can't get here fast enough!