Category: Updates about Andrew

My little boy is off on his second week of Kindergarten.  Hard to believe!  He’s really loving it.

Andrew’s young heart thrives on calendars and schedules and charts.  He starts each day looking at the calendar and figuring out what day it is and how many days until some event in the future.  Now that we have the school’s hot lunch schedule hanging on the refrigerator, we have a new topic to consider: hot or cold lunch today?  [I could re-phrase that as processed, trans-fat-laden, sugar-filled hot lunch vs. organic, locally produced, nutrient-rich homemade lunch, but I won’t.  That’s a topic for a different post.]

Andrew brought home some info on Friday describing the different classes that they have each day.  I’d also received a handout describing the kindergarten class schedule.  So Saturday morning, I took a few minutes and typed up a weekly schedule for my boy.  So on any given morning he can look and see what special classes he has scheduled that day.  And at any time of the day, I can glance at the schedule to see what he’s up to.

Here’s a version in PDF if you’d like a copy for yourself!  This week he has four days of school, and next week, we’ll be up to five.  So far, so good:)

I picked up Andrew at 1:45 from his first day of Kindergarten.  They have short days today and tomorrow.  He came out of school full of smiles.  My young guy doesn’t tend to be too forthcoming with details about his life, but he did tell me that he made a friend (although he wasn’t sure what his name was:)  We held hands while we walked home, and then Andrew and Alivia conspired to play together post-school today.  So in the last hour, I haven’t seen much of him.  Perhaps we’ll learn a little more during quieter moments tonight.

Here are a few images from the end of his first day.

Here’s the scene outside the school, awaiting his dismissal.

So many cute kids!

I shot this one from the hip.  So nice to see his sweet face running to greet me!

It’s official!  He’s a full Kindergartener!

(Reluctantly) posting with Alivia before heading home.

This photo puts a lump in my throat.  My little guy holding my hand.

He’s feeling good!

And the backpack is dumped by the door…  So it begins!

This morning, Bryan and I walked our now-five-year-old baby boy to his first day of Kindergarten.  He’s been sooooo excited!  When Andrew is happily anticipating something, he gambols about like a long-legged foal.  There’s been a lot of gamboling at 4310 Hegg Ave. recently:)

Last night, after I tucked him in bed, he came out to the living room and curled up next to me.  “I’m so excited!!” he declared.  “I can’t wait until tomorrow!”  Around 9:15, I was reading in bed, and he climbed in bed with me, confessing that he couldn’t sleep because his body wouldn’t settle down.  “I can’t take deep breaths to quiet my body,” he said.  “But snuggling here in bed with you helps.”  Soon after, he went back to his own bed and found his way into the land of dreams.

Sylvia is at daycare at Donna’s house on Wednesdays, so this morning, Andrew got me and Bryan all to himself.  Alivia came to the door to pick us up, and after taking a few first-day-of-Kindergarten pictures, we headed out.

Here’s a slide show of pictures from our morning.

And here are some of my favorites.

Andrew’s first day of Kindergarten!

Andrew with his buddy Alivia.  She’s starting first grade at Nuestro Mundo this year!

Walking off to school.

Oh, so cute!

Gotta love Miss Alivia’s red, red shoes.  Oh, how much they’ve grown!

There’s my handsome husband helping walk his little guy to school for the first time.

We’re here!

Andrew’s looking for his classroom.

Taking it all in…

Here are a couple of the tables where the kids will sit.

Here’s where the kids sit and plan out their day.

There’s the calendar and class chart.

After taking a peek at the classroom, we headed out to the playground where the teachers were gathering up their students.  Here’s Maestra Laura with a few of her students.

What a bustling, slightly chaotic, exciting environment!

While the class assembled, Andrew talked to some of his new classmates (including one who was feeling pretty sad), waved and grinned, and generally looked pretty happy and confident.  Here’s a few faces he gave me just before heading inside.

Toodles kiddos!

Here’s some of the happy and proud parents photographing their kid’s departure.

And here is the sign on the door.  Have fun, Andrew!!!

I’ll try to do a follow-up post this afternoon to report on how the day went!

Around here, it seems that birthdays stretch for days if not weeks.  And that’s fine with me, because I like parties!  Especially with family:)

So here are some images from Tuesday, June 22.  More are available in the gallery.

We were hanging out at home, when the doorbell rang, and what should be there but a cookie bouquet from Andrew’s Great-Grandma Jo.  He and Sylvia devoured them all.

That evening, brimming high on the cookie sugar, we went to Pedro’s, where Andrew was excited to get a “pink drink” (non-alcoholic strawberry Margarita) and a cake just like Bubba and Joe did for their birthdays last March.  For supper, Andrew licked the cheese off his cheeseburger.  And that’s it.  No bun, no burger.  Just the cheese.  Birthday fun!!

Here’s a few pics from dinner.  More are in the gallery.

There’s the birthday boy.

They gave him a sombrero…so cute!

It’s always fun to get together for a meal.

Terry’s Aunt Rusty (left) and Terry’s mommy: Topsy (right) are both visiting Madison this week.  Such lovely ladies inside and out.

Blowing out his birthday cake.

I think he’s loving his role as the birthday boy!

So now he’s Five for real.  And ever more:)

Last weekend, Andrew had a fun-filled birthday party at Tenney Park beach.  He’d enjoyed his fourth birthday party so much, that he requested a repeat. So we had a Godzilla cake (constructed and decorated by Granny and Andrew), a T. Rex pinata (in lieu of Godzilla), swimming, relaxing beach fun with family, and this year…an entertainer who made cool balloon sculptures for the kids.

I didn’t take many photos, but Jessica took some for me.  And Granny took some too.  Enjoy a few!  More are available in the gallery!

365 days ago, I wrote the following post as Andrew was on the eve of his fourth birthday.  Right now, my clock says June 21, 11:58pm.  In a few more moments, my little guy will be five.  An energetic, focused, exuberant Five.  When you’re raising kids, the hours do sometimes gooo soooo sloooow, but the months, they fly by on zippy wings.  Andrew is still so much the little boy he was at two and three and four, and yet, when I look back at photos or videos, I can see just how much he’s changed.  In the past year, he’s grown more aware of the world outside his own skin, and yet, he’s still so very content to do his own thing.  He sometimes adjusts to unfamiliar situations with a calm that surprises me.   He’s gotten funnier and punnier, and the knock knock jokes keep on comin’.

In the last 12 months, Andrew’s leapt into reading.  He started with Gerald and Piggy books, and these days, he can read just about anything he wants.  Too many words on a page frustrate him, but he reads Sylvia all her picture books…an activity that makes my heart fill and overflow.  Andrew loves to do art projects, to help cook in the kitchen, and to work (endlessly?!) on his workbooks.  Physically, he loves to climb trees, he is experimenting with the idea of giving up his bike’s training wheels, and he’s almost able to paddle a few feet in the pool. I imagine that in a year, we’ll be at a whole different place!

While his mind is growing and his limbs are strengthening, my little Andrew man is still such a cuddlebug.  He wakes up in the morning and wants to snuggle.  Occasionally he still tucks his arms down between us when we hug, just like he used to when he was tiny.  He glows with love toward me and Bryan and Sylvia.  I feel so very lucky that he is my golden haired boy.

Andrew, you were a terrific four-year-old.  You were so easy and fun and amazing to me this past year.  And now you are brim-full of excitement about Kindergarten.  I look forward to spending the next year with your five-year-old self.

And if I was your fairy godmother and could grant you a few sparkling qualities on your birthday, I would wish for you health and compassion and resiliency and kindness and curiosity.   Happy birthday, my dear boy!