Friday, September 09, 2005
Scholarly Pursuits
Not trivial at all, although I'm a sucker for that game.
Morning is supposed to start gently. Perhaps around noon, accompanied by coffee in bed. Maybe strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream, too.
OK, it usually starts with coffee (made by me) in the kitchen and sometimes a slice of toast if I can find some bread that hasn't gone green yet, but it certainly starts considerably closer to noon than it has been doing in recent days.
Thursday, the alarm went off far too early (or I went to bed far too late). I expected complaints from the decidedly-not-early-rising Missy Moo, however the mere whisper of "first day of school" catapulted her out of bed and into her brand-new orange dress with flowers and her light-up Barbie sneakers.
The effect was considerably more salutory than one might at first imagine. Then again, that kid could make a dishcloth look good. Which, considering my knitting history, may well be a good thing.
(Speaking of dishcloths, here is a quick and easy way to help out the hurricane victims while using up your massive stash of cotton ... or do I have all of the cotton now?)
I managed to convince her that a good breakfast was a necessary part of an effective education or something and got about half a bowl of porridge and a cup of milk into her, and then off we toddled to her first day of class.
We live three blocks away from the school, which is one of the reasons we chose it over several others in our catchment area. The other reasons being its small size, its stellar reputation and, in particular, the reputation of the Kindergarten teacher.
This reputation seems to be well-founded, however despite the warm welcome and the many children ready and willing to play, Eleanor chose to sit alone (with me) and draw a picture for Tracey. I left after about half an hour, went home for coffee and came back.
Friday morning was just about as early (they're going to start later next week, right?) and after yogurt and an apple and something or other (one cooked breakfast a week, dude, that's all I'm promising) we set out again. Today she also started the day by drawing a picture, this time for Diamond, and only consented to my departure after half an hour or so.
When I went back to pick her up after class, she was fine and was playing with the other kids. They went outside to the playground and she joined in just fine, making friends with a couple of little girls and running around like a goonybird.
I sat down on a bench and hauled out my knitting and sat there in happy solitude for a while, while the other mothers (and a father) hung out chatting, closer to the playground equipment. They obviously knew each other, and I waited for a while until I felt comfortable and then went over to talk to them. I was welcomed into the group and discovered that there were at least two or three other knitters there.
I had been a little concerned about my daughter's lack of willingness to leap right in with the other kids right off the bat, and then I realized ... I had done exactly the same thing. Sat by myself, doing something that I found familiar and comforting, until I was ready to join the others.
I smiled to myself. It seems that in many ways, the apple and the tree are, indeed, even closer than I had known.
I'll start saving for the therapy next week.
# posted by Rabbitch @ 11:45 PM 
Comments:
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Knitting can relax anyone's nerves.
So see, she is ok with the school thing. And you even made some friends.
:)
So see, she is ok with the school thing. And you even made some friends.
:)
Sounds like a cute first day of school outfit! I bet the other kids loved the shoes.
Thanks for working in the distcloth thing :)
Thanks for working in the distcloth thing :)
# posted by 
: 11:09 AM
: 11:09 AM
My little guy is heading into middle school - they start at 8 - we have to leave the house at 7:30. That's A.M. In the morning.
# posted by : 2:43 PM
: 2:43 PM
This is highly irrelevant to your beautiful post, but Eleanor is such a lovely name. Bless you for perpetuating it.
It's good to know mother AND daughter are adjusting well to the new school :-)
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It's good to know mother AND daughter are adjusting well to the new school :-)
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