I’m not as ready as he is – thoughts on Kindergarten

My oldest son starts Kindergarten this month. And I’ve had a lot on my mind about that. I thought I would use this post as a general repository for all of the thoughts swirling in my head as a result of the Kindergarten countdown. My apologies in advance that this may be more like a stream of consciousness.

My big kindergarten boy when he was two weeks old.

First of all I would like to announce that we have  reached the age of being notified of class supply lists and orientation dates via Facebook. I never thought I would get my son’s school supply list off of Facebook, but there you go. The school Facebook page is actually quite good and they event create “events” for things like an upcoming Open House. It’s just strange to me is all. So impersonal.

I have to put my son’s name on every individual crayon within 2 boxes of 24 count Crayola crayons. Yep.

Are we going to do purchased cafeteria food or pack his lunch? I was, I think, an easy child as I ate PB&J every day that I carried a lunchbox until middle school. Then I discovered that I liked cafeteria food, as did most of my peers, and ate the cafeteria offerings all through the remainder of school. Even my senior year. Most people don’t admit to liking cafeteria lunch food. I’m sure some folks really didn’t, but I think it’s more “cool” or popular to say you didn’t like that crap than it is to say you enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I’ve never been cool. My son is more likely to be influenced by his peers. Fingers crossed that most of them also want to do the cafeteria lunch.

If I chose to pack his lunches, what will I pack? I really think we’ll do the cafeteria, but I must be prepared for a packing situation just in case. I am not the kind of person to do pretty and creative bento boxes….when I have to feed my kids lunch on the weekends it consists of Bandito burritos on Saturdays and fish sticks on Sundays. I can honestly say I’ve never considered feng shui on the plate. I don’t color coordinate, unless you count the times that they get mac & cheese, corn and apple sauce on a yellow plate. Here’s to sandwich bags containing sandwiches and function over form.

Can you tell this whole “what will he eat” thing seems more important to me than it probably is?

They grow up so fast. Here he is just a little over a year old.

I have other general anxieties about sending my child off to real school. I’ve been preparing him for the drop-off, how we won’t be walking him in. His independence is going to sky-rocket, once he has a real life outside of home and the so-far-closely-supervised daycare. I think he will soar, blossom, and generally prove to the world how awesome and smart he is, but it’s still bittersweet.

Will he make friends easily? I think he will. He does seem to gravitate toward and hold in high esteem that one kid though. You know, the one I’m talking about. Will he be that one kid to someone else? It’s possible. Will he be the class clown? Also highly possible. I can in no way predict his future, but I do know for sure that’s he’s an amazing, funny, imaginative and smart child and those things should serve him well.

But really, it’s just that he’s my baby, my #1, and I’m not ready to send him out into the world yet. I will, but I won’t like it. Even typing this post, I’ve got some tears forming. We can’t hold them close forever, this I know, but we can allow ourselves to cry a good cry and go ahead and feel all of the feels. It’s just as much a rite of passage for us moms as it is the kids.

I know we’ll both be just fine. He’ll do much better than I will that first day, but after that I know I will cherish hearing all about his day at school and finding out all of the wonderful things he’s learned.

Groupon Seats – A Concert Experience

This past Friday night, me and five fab friends drove down to Birmingham with our Groupon tickets to see the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20.

Click to enlarge.

Groupon = cheap seats. The cheap seats are my favorite place to sit. Behold my view:

• Much less crowded.
• Great people watching! I can’t stress this enough.
• Good sound.
• Cardio stair workout. My butt reminded me of this the next day.

The Goo Goo Dolls are a longtime favorite of mine. I actually think they are an underrated band. Born out of alternative but known for radio-friendly rock, I feel like they maintained their integrity and put out a catalog of excellent songs that have stood the test of time.

Matchbox 20 is just good ol’ radio music. No complaints. Both bands sounded great. It was a very fun night.

Other observations:

• Tall cans are tall. And expensive. It was $13 for a tall can of margarita. Beers are $11. I can still remember the days when we got a big plastic cup of beer for $4 and thought that was a expensive.
• Just a year ago at the same venue, I was lamenting that the big beer cans were $9. Inflation anyone?
• This was a crowd more my age and maturity level. Also lots of families. Interesting.
• Giant salty pretzels are good to bring to friends who are several tall cans into the evening. They are not, however, good to stuff in your back pocket.
• Waffle House at 2 am is never a bad idea. Never. Though in hind-sight, we probably should have skipped the 15 minute long conversation about our various children’s potty issues.
• Quote of the night, “I don’t have road rage, it’s just disappointment in people.”

Who Knew There Were 2 Scary Library Ladies

Last Saturday, I took my oldest son RJ to see Monsters University. It was just the two of us, getting out of the house on a rainy day.

In the car on the way, my son was saying he was scared and didn’t want to see the movie, citing a particular scene with a scary library lady. Having not really paid that much attention to the Monsters U previews, I said he must be thinking of something else. In fact, I assumed he was thinking of Ghostbusters. The way he described the scene made me absolutely POSITIVE that he was talking about Ghostbusters. So much so, that I even figured he’d recently watched it at my mother’s house when he stayed over the weekend before.

Well….at the appropriate time in the movie, I saw the scary library monster scene and boy did that make me feel old. Since I couldn’t remember off the top of my head, a quick search says that Ghostbusters came out in 1984. Yep, almost 20 years ago. Old momma is old.

But in my defense, it was an honest assumption. See: