it started with cramming all of our school supplies into a large double-bagged paper grocery sack (one overflowing bag for each child) to take with us to meet the teacher so we can simplify our first day of school and not have to carry 50 lbs of school supplies on that day. gone are the days when we only need a backpack, pencils and a cardboard pencil box. today’s lists include reams of paper, reams of cover stock, specific colors and specific brands of markers for teachers to grade with, large boxes of kleenex, boxes of wipes, boxes of antibacterial wipes, boxes of ziploc baggies, paper towels; in addition to all the traditional requests of crayons, markers, colored pencils, regular pencils, 20 glue sticks, scissors, binders, paper, spiral notebooks, composition notebooks, calculators, specific-branded erasers, protractors, folders with bottom pockets, black flair pens, red flair pens, highlighters, rulers…. times 5. seriously. so happy to have that part done.
then, we waited with much anticipation (and nervousness and confusion if you’re ray) for the class lists to be posted by the principal. the beloved lists are taped to the inside of the windows of the school so that you can see them from outside. there is much confusion and chaos as everyone is trying to squeeze past everyone else so they can read each teacher’s class list in their grade, searching for their name alphabetically.
emma was the one with the greatest expectations. she had her heart set on a specific (well-loved) teacher. she was the first one to see her name on her 6th-grade list.
and her wish came true: she got mr. wobker.
next was nolan. who didn’t really have a preference for who he got. he was cool no matter what. he was just curious about who would be in his class. and savannah couldn’t quite understand how she was supposed to figure out who her teacher was, even though we took her over to the first-grade lists and told her to find her name. the older kids were impatient and finally ended up pointing to her name.
nolan got mrs. trotter- a relatively new teacher at our school who we’ve heard good things about. savannah got mrs. oishi, who is a veteran teacher at our school, but one that no one else in our family has had. savannahs thinks her teacher’s name is fun to say; it’s kind of like “squishy".
since ray is in kindergarten, we already knew who is teacher would be and that he will be in afternoon kindergarten so there was no surprise factor there. the fun/unique thing about ray’s teacher is that she is a long-time friend of mine…and she lives 3 doors down from us. can you imagine if your kindergarten teacher was your neighbor?! pretty exciting stuff.
not necessarily for ray, though. even though he totally knows sheri [i mean] mrs. ernst, he was still really clingy and fingers-in-his-mouth shy today.
and he did. not. leave. my. side.
among the things ray thought were cool in his classroom: the teeny, tiny toilet, seeing his name on a table and a cubby and other letters in his name on the walls, and getting to complete a “getting to know your classroom” scavenger hunt that was not meant for parents with 4 other children’s teachers to meet and greet. we spent way too long in ray’s hot, cramped classroom. and ray was very relieved when he got to leave with me- and that i didn’t leave him in that chaos of nervous parents and scared children.
next we headed to savannah’s classroom, which is right across the hall from ray’s classroom. it’s already feeling more manageable for ray.
compared to ray’s over-stimulating kindergarten classroom, savannah’s first-grade classroom was pretty plain and boring. the teacher didn’t even have name tags on the desks yet. we didn’t linger long. the coolest thing about savannah’s new classroom, besides being directly across from ray’s classroom, is that her teacher has 2 classroom pet turtles. the kids were in love. and they’re already asking if we can have a pet turtle.
{i LOVE when my kids ask if we can buy a new pet.}
next, we hit nolan’s classroom. which is 2 doors down from ray’s classroom. ray hit the jackpot. now he’s really feeling good about getting left here at school without me. savannah to the south, nolan to the east. not bad.
nolan had a welcome to third-grade letter on his desk, which gave him an assignment: to write a letter to his parents in the journal that was on his desk. he took his third-grade responsibilities very seriously and got right to work. we left him there to complete his assignment while savannah, ray and i went upstairs to find emma and her new digs.
which is when disaster struck. because her classroom had a pet, also. a land tortoise. if you’re keeping track: that’s 2 turtles for savannah and a turtle for emma. which actually only means NO TURTLES for ray.
(those are ray’s hands)
by the time we’d left emma’s classroom, ray had ditched the confidence he’d gained in knowing he was so close to nolan and savannah and instead focused on the fact that he did not have a turtle. he was a weeping mess.
enter elli to lie to him save the day, who promised him that she would buy him 2 turtle for his birthday next month.
nice work, elli.
then we were off to take advantage of the cool photo opportunities that our modern school has to offer. brace yourself.
some of the kids were totally cooperating and actually setting up their own photo ops and others were not so much.
this is the shot where being comfortable with my self-timer really paid off. everyone was ready and in position lickety-split. and i got to be in a photo with my kids. cool.
this is where i could have easily called it a day.
but i decided to “run savannah to the dentist” to have her mouth looked at. she had a cist on her upper gum and a permanent bottom tooth that had fully grown in right behind the super tight baby tooth. awesome. what started out as a “can you check this out and tell me if i need to worry about it or if it will take care of itself?” kind of visit, quickly turned in to a “let’s refer you to an oral surgeon to have 3 {baby} teeth extracted right away” visit. sweet.
so we ended up over at dr. trippel’s office. the same doctor that “extracted” elli’s 2 front baby teeth at the tender age of three (ten years ago!) after an accident. lots of fun memories for me.
after me swearing up and down to savannah that she would have nothing painful done today {“the doctor’s just looking today. she’s not going to do anything. i promise.”}, the oral surgeon decided the top {baby} tooth needed to come out right now because it was causing an infection in savannah’s upper gum that had resulted in an abscess. pulling the tooth would alleviate the infection.
a funny laughing gas mask, a few shots, savannah suddenly loudly exclaiming how “light” everything was, a huge scary-looking plier-type tool, and about 45 seconds later, savannah is proudly missing her front tooth.
notice the abscess above the missing tooth and the double teeth effect below (which will result in her getting 2 of her lower baby teeth pulled at a later appointment)
i couldn’t help but compare this visit to countless other doctor visits we’ve had with her over the last 5 years. she used to totally freak out in new situations, particularly the doctor’s office. she wouldn’t even get on a scale she was so afraid. getting her blood drawn for necessary tests was a nightmare. and she would scream and cling to me for any procedure.
today was a far cry from that savannah. i could tell she was scared and unsure, but she expressed her fears in a rational way. she stayed still. she made light of the situation with silly comments. she asked questions. she was trusting. there have been few moments where i have actually been proud of the way that savannah has reacted to an unknown situation, but today was definitely a proud moment for me. truly miraculous for me to witness how calm and trusting and able to express her fears/hurts in a verbal way.
her smile is funny to me because she has a pretty severe overbite and her bottom tooth completely fills in the gap where her top tooth is missing. :)
benefits for savannah: a princess wand and other princess accessories from our dentist, a beanie baby from the oral surgeon, and a scoop of cotton candy ice cream from cold stone, courtesy of emma.
and, holy cow, it’s (past) time to make dinner.
over and out.
