firsts

it's been busy around here lately, and in the midst of busy it seems things are happening!  the first first was the first day of kindergarten!  here is the official first day picture.

yesterday concluded brody's second week of school.  his first report on school revealed that his favorite things to do were PE and recess.  as we progress (even though not that far yet) into school i can see that he likes some other pieces of it too.  he has time for each subject throughout the day including writer's workshops where they draw out their stories and reading workshops with special reading sessions with 3rd graders.  he spends a portion of his day in science.  last week he learned about how water towers worked.  to brody this is fascinating stuff.  he loves to learn how things work, and he's told all of us about it.

fridays are fun days.  everyone begins the day with friday assembly.  i'm not sure what occurs in friday assembly, but i'm sure i'll learn more as we go.  each friday brody has two "specials."  "specials" are art, PE and music.  the specials rotate throughout the week with one each day except on friday, and then they have two.  brody thought this was pretty cool.  i've been surprised (and delighted) by how much he's enjoying art and music.  PE was a no-brainer.  last friday the kindergarteners had a fun friday adventure of a gingerman hunt.  from what i can decipher they spent their day gathering clues throughout the school to find the gingerman.  they didn't find him in the end, but he did leave a tasty gingerbread cookie snack for the students to decorate and enjoy.  "and they even got to eat as many sprinkles as they wanted!" 

the next first we had at the house was a first wriggler, or first loose tooth!  brody and erik came home from the dentist a few weeks ago telling me that the dentist had deemed his bottom front tooth loose.  i didn't believe it and thought surely it was at the stage of loose where only the dentist could tell.  that was not the case!  it was definitely a wriggler to the point that i (possibly over-reacting) only packed meat, cheese and crackers in his lunch because i remember how much it bugged me to bite into a sandwich with a loose tooth.  erik kept asking brody if he could pull it.  at first i thought that was insensitive, then grandpa asked a similar question, and i chalked it up to a male-thing.  one day brody will ask his son, grandson, nephew the same thing i bet. 

well, that tooth wriggled and wriggled and held on like a good tooth.  i guess brody tired of it one day or used it to distract himself from school, and he pulled it right out!  when i arrived home from work that night i was pounced on at the door with a toothless little grin in my face, and the tiniest little tooth in his hand.  he went to bed with much anticipation of the tooth fairy, and he ran out of his room in the morning absolutely elated for the $1 she left under the pillow. there's lots of magic in the tooth fairy.

not to leave emersyn out of this post because she too has had a busy few weeks.  her school starts next week.  for the past two weeks she's been biking to and from school with brody.  for the first week she rode the kismoto, and then erik decided brody needed a new bike.  suddenly he's towering over his bike.  erik picked up a new bike for brody, and emersyn decided she wanted to ride reese's old bike.  we took for a spin around the block.  i could see her catch on to the pedalling here and there but not consistently.  i wasn't concerned.  it was her first time around.  then we went to victoria for labor day weekend.  we took brody's old bike to store there, and i thought it would be a good place for her to try riding. 

grandpa put the training wheels on, and we took the bike outside.  i was helping brody with his bike.  i looked up, and emersyn was pedalling down the street with grandpa jogging behind her!  she pedalled and pedalled all over that neighborhood with the proudest grin on her face.   

 gotta catch brody!

. . . focus . . . focus . . focus . . .

i see a hint of that smile again!

we officially have two bike riders now!