Kindergarten Gals Go Around The Outside

Some of you might be curious how kindergarten is going these days. I think it's fine.

Jarrah has learned the names of all her classmates, which doesn't surprise me because she's great with names. I'm not sure who-all she hangs out with; for a while I heard a lot about Kayla, but on the way home the other day Jarrah told me that Kayla always races to be line-leader which is not "making fair," concluding with a sigh, "...so we broke up." I hid my smile and asked if she was sure about that, and she said, alas, yes. She also shakes her head sadly every now and then and says she can't be friends with Sammy because "he doesn't make good choices." This language is so classically pedagogical that I have to use every sad thought in my repertoire to avoid laughing when I hear it. I mean, what could be a more perfect reason not to hang with someone? "He doesn't make good choices." Isn't this valuable advice for us all? When you know that, as Mama told me, you better shop around.

At home, Jarrah has begun reading simple "I can read" books to me and her daddy. You can't imagine what a huge, huge development this is. She has been in school four weeks. Before September 7, she didn't even know the sounds of words (and didn't recognize many of the letters.) This didn't concern me in the least, because she had never been taught such things, either in school or by me. Now that someone is actively teaching her, she is having what I believe they call "a reading explosion." And it warms the frozen cockles of my heart. Seeing her sitting on the couch, brow furrowed, sounding out the sentence "Big Pig takes a good nap" can transport me to a magical, happy place for hours. Harry Potter, here we come!

Don't judge me until I'm done judging myself (and I'm not even sure what for yet) but we will be attending our first Daisies meeting next week. Though such a thing didn't exist in my girlhood, Daisies are apparently the legitimate offspring of Brownies and Girl Scouts, and they collect badges that look like little petals. I got roped into a meeting because I happened to be chatting with the woman who is going to be the troop leader at the time. I sat there sort of transfixed with horror, because I may have mentioned in this space that I was a less than ideal Girl Scout, often beaten by my peers, and teased incessantly for my weird, naked sash where the badges should have been (it's a long story.) But Jarrah isn't me, and her friends are doing it, and...we'll see. Never fear, there are no cookie sales for the next two years. Because? I do not sell things.

This morning I went to my first official PTF meeting, where I proceeded to raise holy hell for being left off the e-mail list (in between yawns that I feared might crack my skull.) When I got home, there was the e-mail, plain as day. Um...sorry? Whoops? There was a great deal of banter about fundraisers and most of me wanted to stand up and run very far and very fast. But I think I should stick with it and maybe it will be get more diverting. I was chatting with Cheri (who has already been elected Treasurer) after and she asked me which fundraisers I was interested in. "All of them." I said. "All of them?" she asked, a hint of incredulity creeping in. "Well, except the ones that involve jogging," I amended. "Because I don't believe in that. I have my principles. But anything else--bazaars, pledges, flings, ice cream socials--I'm down for those."

Hot lunch is still a raving success, with Tuesdays and Thursdays preferred for being Bean Burrito Day and Chicken Nugget Day respectively. Again, don't hate me because I allow my child to eat institutionalized Chicken Nuggets. Do I win any cred back if I tell you she's never had fast food? We have our mornings more or less down to a science, a complicated dance of you-go-here-and-do this-while-I-find-your-socks.

And the greatest triumph of all? I'm no longer tumbling catatonic back into bed mid-morning, not even sometimes. Sure, I often fall asleep at red lights in the mid-afternoon, but that's normal, isn't it? I mean, everyone does that. It's all good.