First day of school was September 7 and it couldn't get here soon enough for me! I'd been crawling the walls to spend more time with adults and people who value my input (as opposed to my children who believe I am the Fun Governor / Cook/ Maid). Thomas, Meredith, and Solomon were also completely jazzed about starting a new year, but Tinsaye was pretty nervous. She said to me the night before, "Mom, me is small scared of the children. Not boys; boys is good, they is always playing. Me is scared of girles [she pronounces it with two syllables]. Girles is sometimes mean and is hurt me feelings." Poor kid, she's totally right. I guess there are mean girls in every culture. We talked about all the kids she already knew, and that Meredith will be with her at lunch and at recess, and we even practiced how to stand up to a mean kid and what to say if someone hurts your feelings. (It was something nice like, "Stop talking to me that way, you're hurting my feelings." instead of Thomas's helpful suggestion of "shut up or my big brother Thomas will put you in a hammerlock"). She felt better and slept okay the night before.
Here's our annual "first day of school" photos:
Thomas started fifth grade, Tinsaye and Meredith are in second grade, and Solomon is in first grade. This is the only year they will ever be all in the same building. I'm really grateful for ONE bus schedule, conference schedule, lunch menu, and office attendance number, but I now I get FOUR copies of every PTA flyer, fundraiser form, activity reminder, weekly newsletter, and lice/chickenpox/flu alert. The mountain of paperwork coming in my door every night is astonishing.
Thomas is pretty happy to be the "top dog" in school. His fifth grade class is really small, only about 65 kids, but they have three teachers. He has Mrs. Rohde for homeroom, reading/writing, and math and he goes to Mrs. Athan for Science and Mr. Reed (his first male teacher) for Social Studies. Switching classes is a big deal. He has matured so much I can hardly believe this is the same kid that was once a chubby little kindergartener. He is not playing football this fall because we decided that tackle required an absurd amount of time from a 10 year old boy. He actually agreed with us, although virtually all of his friends are playing tackle. He said, "I don't want too much going on while I'm worrying about school and if Tinsaye and Solomon are doing okay." Therein lies Thomas's greatest challenge: not stressing about being perfect at school, and being a brother not a third parent. He will be playing basketball very soon, and he is on the school news crew and he's a bus safety, so that keeps him pretty occupied.
Solomon loves school like no child I've ever known. I mean he LOVES it, every thing from the pencil sharpener to the play structure to the bulletin boards to the lunch room and his precious Star Wars lunchbox. He is up and dressed and with his backpack and lunchbox ready to go about 12 minutes after I wake him up in the morning because he can not WAIT to see what amazing things he will discover today. He worships his teacher, Miss Johnson. She has very long red hair and he is halfway in love with her, and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. He has already brought home three "green notes" which are daily awards for being terrific. His only fear is the looming specter of the dreaded "pink note" which is for negative behavior. He gave me a stunningly dramatic re-enactment of some poor kid named Shruti interrupting Miss Johnson three times and getting a pink note. He was shocked, SHOCKED that anyone would ever do anything to displease Miss Johnson. So far he has discovered the following: dot-to-dots ("Mom, see! You draw pencil on numbers and MAGIC picture is there!"), criss-cross-applesauce ("Miss Johnson, why you legs is applesauce?"), the importance of knowing your bus route number ("We is one-five-five, I remember number and I look for Tinsaye too"), and why you don't pull your pants down at the urinal ("Is dee-shgus-ting! I go in bathroom and this boy is his bottom is all out and he say 'you no look at me butt!' and say 'sorry' but I laughing too!"). Like many 6 year old boys, he is fascinated by dinosaurs and astronauts, but for Solomon it is because he never knew either existed before now. Giant bones? In the ground? Where dinosaurs go? You fly so high it is black? You float in the air? HOW??? Solomon reminds me how vast and miraculous is the universe. He is so tired at the end of the day he has fallen asleep while getting his eye drops. He says, "I'm sorry mom, me sleep is come" and that's it. Gone. Wow, I love this kid.
Meredith has Ms. Hayes for second grade and she is totally laid back, happy, and peaceful about school so far. She always thinks she's doing fine and has lots of friends, no problems. However, after only nine days of school, she has already forgotten her lunchbox one day and her picture money another day. Thomas caught her getting on the wrong bus too, but she claims she was "tricking him" because he's a bus safety and she wanted to see if he was doing a good job! When everyone piles in the house after school, the other three yell their stories over each other and fight for my attention, but Meredith just comes in, dumps her stuff and starts fixing a snack or watching TV. I have to pry information out of her and it's not easy because the other three don't even wait for her to respond before they interrupt to tell their stuff. She's really happy, though, and I just have to find time to be alone with her to really find out about her day.
Tinsaye discovered that "the children in America is SO NICE, they is all me friends, no one is hurting me feelings". On the first morning she tried really hard to convince her dad to just drive her in the car behind the school bus because she was scared and he told her to forget it. Again, I'm reminded why God chose us to be her parents... in the hands of gentler people she'd be a huge princess, but in our family it's always "quit whining and get on the bus". Her teacher is Mrs. Tarchalski, and the comedy factor alone of hearing her try to pronounce Tarchalski is awesome. But in addition, Mrs. Tarchalski is a terrific teacher who is also Tinsaye's lifeline/personal saint. In contrast to Meredith, Tinsaye loves to recount every minute of the entire school day, how she was feeling, who said what, what they did next, what games she played on recess and who she played with, in minute and excruciating detail. I just listen and listen and remind myself how hard it must have been for this little girl to have had no mom to tell all her stuff to at the orphanage. The other special thing about Tinsaye is that she has Jesus on speed-dial 24-7. She's a deeply spiritual kid and genuinely pops in and out of prayer all the time. As in "Mom, the children is all going to the door and me is not sure what to do and me think 'Jesus help me, what to do?' and He say 'ask you friend and she is help you'". And "I is open me lunchbox and see me sandwich with so much avocado and I say 'thank you Jesus for me mom'". I'm learning a lot from Tinsaye, and I often think "Thank you Jesus, for me Tinsaye."
So now you know why it's taken me two weeks to get this blog updated. Instead of blogging I'm making avocado sandwiches, explaining archaology, listening to stories, solving problems, filling out forms, filling out the same forms again for Meredith since she lost hers the first time, and finding Youtube videos of astronauts. And praying. I'm doing lots and lots of praying. And although most of my prayers are for patience, peace, strength, and wisdom, I am also overflowing with gratitude and awe.
