the pieces of my life

One week and one day as the mother of a kindergartner, and this suburban hausfrau is already failing. Tomorrow is the first bake sale of the year… and I have nothing. Not even a store-bought cake to pass off as my own.

I’ll just hand in the keys to my minivan now….

I survived the first day of kindergarten (yes, me. I never had any doubt about Doodles). Preschool for Pie starts at the end of this week. We’re settled into our apartment, and–yes, finally–the construction seems to be beginning. I return to freelance work tomorrow. The temperatures are dipping and suddenly the synagogue is all abuzz about the high holidays. Forget what the calendar says; summer is officially over.

Doodles loved kindergarten. He did have a couple of complaints: 1) “Why can’t I stay for the afterschool program?” and 2) “We didn’t learn anything today.” But other than that, he already found his gaggle of guy friends with whom he sat at lunch. He played with blocks during choice time, drew a picture of himself–with his backpack, learned where to put his folder, raised his hand to use the bathroom, heard two books about kindergarten, and generally enjoyed his day. Pie, on the other hand, wasn’t satisfied with the raspberry picking we did and complained frequently about not going to kindergarten herself.

For lunch, I packed–in his brand-new Star Wars lunch box–falafel, hummus, pita, string cheese, and red pepper (oh how far we’ve come with his eating!). As a treat, I printed out some cute school-themed notepaper and wrote a special note for him. On the note, I taped a Hershey’s Kiss as a treat.

After school, we went to the playground to play, and I peeked into his lunch box. The falafel, string cheese, and half a red pepper were eaten. “You didn’t eat much,” I said. “I ran out of time,” he told me. As we were walking, I asked, “Did you get a special treat in your lunch?”

“Yes!” he said. “I got a Hershey’s Kiss! It was a surprised. You didn’t tell me it was going to be there.”

“It was a special first day of school surprise for you.”

“I liked it, Mom,” he said.

When we finally got home, it was close to five. “Can I finish my lunch now?” he asked.

“It’s just about dinner time,” I said. “Do you want to finish your lunch for dinner?”

“Yes,” he said, and he sat down and opened his lunch. “And when I’m done, I can have my Kiss.”

Confused, I asked, “Didn’t you eat your kiss at school?”

He shook his head. “No, Mom!” he said, in his duh voice. “I didn’t eat all my energy food so I didn’t eat the Kiss.”

Holy cow. Food group would have been proud of him. And for the record, I let him eat the Kiss before he finished the rest of his lunch/dinner.

I did buy Doodles a first-day-of-school present: two easy reader Star Wars books. Which was fine, except Pie announced, “I want a Kiss for my first day of school and for my first day of school I want two books, only with princesses in them!”

Three more days till preschool gets into full swing. Just three more days….