the new school

Yesterday was my first day at my new school. All of our effort spent restructuring my life was (hopefully only temporarily) undone and I was rather sleepy in the afternoon and evening mostly because I insisted on waking up in the opening minutes of the 5:00 hour to help my mom with scrambled eggs. By helping, I mean I did all of the work except I let her steam the spinach. (I am determined to be a better chef than Trinity is.) While you may think it is some feat that I can cook the most delicious scrambled eggs in the world, it was a greater accomplishment that we had my dad out of bed and eating a proper breakfast shortly after 6:00am.

Since the only thing predictable about our commute into downtown is that it is going to be miserable and long, we left early and got to school in time to explore the baseball fields across the street. This is a nice way to stretch out after being in the car for an hour+.

With a few minutes to spare, we walked over to the courtyard and, after playing chase with two of my new friends, I sat outside of my classroom door with my hands in my lap (Montessori style, to signify that I am ready).

And off I went. happily.

I was sleepy. But I worked hard and enjoyed the day.

At my new school, the teacher phones every parent every day for the first week. Her version of events largely matched what I told my mom in the time it took me to finish my chocolate croissant in the car before I passed out and didn't awake for three hours. The teacher made some insightful observations about me . . . like that I ask a lot of questions. Did you know that I ask a lot of questions? She says I am working hard to understand the new procedures and how everything fits together. I gravitated toward the materials I am most familiar with (including the geometric solids) and worked with that farm I have been obsessed with all summer.

Pay no attention to my brown dead lawn. Though I thankfully avoided a lot of it while I was frolicking on the beaches and in the lush parks of the northwest, surprise, we've had weeks upon weeks of miserable dry hot weather. It might be a good idea to pave my yard and install a race track.

This is a photo of me enjoying the very end of my last day of summer break. And what a day it was. My good friend Terese even came over to do some gardening with me and then we built some row houses (love that Boston accent of hers) with my toy logs.

My alarm is set for 5:12am so I (yes, ME, I will be doing the cooking) can wake up and make scrambled eggs with spinach. And then we will set out to try to remember just how fun commuting is.

orientation

We have been busy, or perhaps deliberately unbusy, this week preparing for preschool orientation.

Here is a photo of me yesterday arriving for my first session of orientation. Since I was excited about going, we got there early. too early. We sat in the office to wait (they have a nice selection of books) and when my assistant teacher came in to introduce herself and take me to the classroom, I greeted her with a hug so big that tears popped out of her eyes. She was wearing a fancy giraffe skirt (not cheesy giraffe print but pink silkscreened giraffes). While we talked, I had to make sure she knows that I am a fast runner and I have the fastest shoes in the world.

The orientation itself went well. Really, I'd say it was uneventful. I am ready to be back in school so I was delighted to be there. (The boy before me was quite shy and the boy after me cried.) I had missed my Montessori work during the summer.

In yesterday's orientation, I got a lesson with materials I have never worked with before. In today's orientation, I got to work with the barn I have been obsessed with since my first visit to the campus back in June.

My first real day of school is next Wednesday. Now we just have to finish adjusting my sleep schedule. We have dropped the nap and I now go to bed as close to 7:00pm as possible. Once I am completely ready to be awake and alert all afternoon, I will be able to stay at school full day. For now, I will go home at noon - and probably be annoyingly cranky as I struggle to stay awake.

I have a package coming in the mail tomorrow. Trinity sewed me a few items that I need for school. I will be up at 4:00am waiting for my mailman.

what I ate

On Thursday afternoon, we returned to Austin after a long visit to the northwest. I am still sorting through my vacation photos and trying to remember where I did what. I have been able to whistle through my nose so it sounds exactly like a seagull. I miss the ocean.

On Friday morning, I slept until well after 10:00. I woke up and promptly made myself a smoothie (12oz with banana, yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, apple, and pineapple juice) and four scrambled eggs with spinach. I also had multigrain toast. Since it was so late in the day, this covered breakfast and lunch.

For an afternoon snack, I ate two bowls of popcorn with nutritional yeast.

And then my mom made tacos for dinner. I ate three bowls of rice (or was it four?), strawberries, cashews, and a taco overflowing with beans and cheese. This was all washed down with tomato juice.