Today’s mail included a postcard addressed to Claire, from Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France. It is a note from her kindergarten friend Juliet, on vacation in the South of France, enjoining Claire not to forget her “BFF”. I was actually hoping to set Claire up with a play date with Juliet, but I’m not sure we can afford to fly her over to France.
Today after school, Claire was really hungry. This is always a struggle. She is always starving right after school and really wants to eat, but it is also almost time for dinner. So she has to sit around while her tummy rumbles in pain while I cook (or rather, “prepare”) dinner. Sometimes she has a little bit of popcorn or something, but I always enjoin her not to spoil her appetite right before dinner. The timing is tricky here, and this can be one of the more difficult aspects of the weekday routine.
Anyways, after some discussion with Claire on the topic, Claire disappeared and, a minute later, she handed me this note.
I need food
You can tell from the handwriting that her blood sugar is low, and she has the shakes. 😉 Claire usually puts more care into notes like these, such as this one I found that she wrote to Molly.
You are a helper. Love, Big Sissy.
The ongoing series of interviews with Claire has been neglected for a while. For for first time in months, I finally got back to a real Q&A session with Claire. We pulled a few random cards from Table Topics, Family Edition…
When was it most difficult to persevere when you wanted to quit?
(After some thought…) Monkey bars
What one thing would you like to know about the future?
Will I live to be 100 years old
What do you admire most about your parents?
(Pass. Too hard.)
What are your favorite kinds of books to read?
Pinkalicious
(Then I said they question was about kinds of books, not a specific book. So Claire changed her answer to…)
Books about pink cupcakes. (Pinkalicious is mostly about pink cupcakes)
What’s your favorite ride at an amusement park?
Zilker train
(I was surprised she did not mention the roll coaster at Sea World.)
Claire has been on a bit of a vegetarian kick lately. It started two days ago, when she was recalling a fun part of Kindergarten. A couple of months ago, the class had adopted several chicken eggs, which eventually hatched into live chicks in the classroom. It was a really exciting development for the kids, and the chicks came out super cute. They were tiny little fuzzy friends, and each of them received a name. Claire’s favorite was Coco.
After recalling this fond memory about the cute little chicks, Claire concluded, “Then they send the chicks back to the farm. Then the chicks grow up into chickens. Then they roast the chickens into chicken.” A little bit of anger has creeped into Claire’s face, and she proclaims, “Which is why I’ll never eat chicken!”
Claire is also now offended by hunting and trapping. Yesterday at Claire’s summer camp, apparently some girls were trying to create a squirrel trap on the playground out of blocks. I asked Claire if they were just making a pretend trap, and she said no, they really wanted to catch a squirrel. I asked if they would let the squirrel go if they caught it, and she said no, they would keep it and maybe eat it. This really angered Claire, and she said she did not like those girls, and they should leave squirrels alone.
This immediately reminded Claire of hunters. She launched into how much she hates hunters. They are “dumb and boring and stupid and mean”, she said. Finally, she said she was not going to eat meat. She wanted to be “one of those people who only eat lettuce. And artichokes and stuff.” Vegetarians, I gather. I helped her come up with a few other non-meat choices to eat. Pasta, beans, rice, bread. We agreed even milk was okay since it didn’t hurt the cow. She did not seem too excited about the list, and so far Claire’s heart-felt vegetarian stance is only rhetorical. Last night, Claire ordered pancakes with eggs and bacon at IHOP. I’m sure she didn’t think about where the bacon and eggs came from. If she did, she would have had second thoughts. And before long, she may realize that we are just as bad egg thieves as the pigs in Angry Birds!
Grammy and Granddaddy have a new boat in Anacortes, Washington. They have been sailing there for years and recently got a new boat which is apparently friendlier for kids, etc.
They have now officially christened their boat after their grand girls! The boat is called the “Molly Claire”. It turns out that “Molly Claire” just sounds better than “Claire Molly”. The girls will get a chance to sail on their namesake in July.
Leading up to the final days of kindergarten, we revealed to Claire our plans for a fun trip to celebrate Claire finishing her first year of elemenrtary school (and Kit’s week off). We would go to Sea World in San Antonio. The timing for this trip could not be better, since Claire has shown great interest in dolphins and other sea life lately. “I am so going to feed the dolphins!”, she said, when we told her about the trip. We showed her a pamphlet of Sea World, and she kept looking at it and saying, “Awesome!” Claire was excited enough that she created a picture at school about the upcoming trip. Claire was also pretty excited about going to San Antonio in general, remembering a fun trip to the zoo there last year.
Not only was the timing perfect for Claire, but it was also perfect for Molly. There is a “Bay of Play” at Sea World which, we all agreed, Molly would be super excited about, because it was themed on Elmo, and very favorite character, and Sesame Street in general. But we did not tell her about Elmo and his Bay of Play until we were at Sea World and she could see it. If we told her earlier, Molly would likely expect to see it right then and there and end up confused or disappointed after repeating “I want Elmo!” a number of times.
Anyways, the trip was indeed “awesome”, as Claire would say many more times. At this point, I am going to drop into bullet points in an attempt to avoid an overly verbose and time-consuming travel log, or at least to help you skip over bits as appropriate.
Perhaps the biggest hit of the trip for Claire and Molly was the hotel, an Embassy Suites about a 20 minute drive from Sea World.
We started out at Dolphin Cove. We explained to Claire that we weren’t sure if we would be able to feed or touch the dolphins, and she said, “Then what are we supposed to do? Just stare at them?” This pessimism gave way to joy when we saw the pool, full of dozens of dolphins, swimming gracefully around, coming up to the sides, and playfully jumping out of the water. We ended up feeding the dolphins too. We bought about a dozen sardines (or something similar) to feed them. Claire ended up skipping the actual dolphin feeding, though, partly because the sardines were gross and slimy, and partly because, I assume, she did not want to get bitten by a dolphin. Molly did manage to feed a dolphin, though, dropping a sardine right into its eager, wide open mouth. Molly sat on the side of the pool waving and saying, cheerfully, “Hey buddies! I’m Molly! I’m a little lamb!”, identifying her class at school. The dolphins seemed to appreciate this introduction, or at least the sardines that came with it.
We also enjoyed a dramatic performance entitled Cannery Row Caper, performed mostly by sea lions. Claire got to ask questions to one of the human actors after the show. Then we grabbed some sardines and fed and admired the playful sea lions for some time. I would personally have named them “sea dogs” since their faces look like a dog, but that is just me, I guess. Seriously, though, they don’t look anything like lions.
Saturday morning gave me, Molly, and Claire a chance for another quick swim while Kit kindly packed up in the room. We managed to save about 45 minutes to visit the Riverwalk on the way back to Austin. We strolled about a half mile on the less crowded part near Municipal Auditorium. This was Molly’s first visit to the Riverwalk, and Claire’s second (the first time, she was about Molly’s age). We took lots of pictures, sat on lots of cool benches and stone overhangs, admired ducks and turtles, waved at passing boats, ran, walked, and finally made it back to the car. I told Claire that the Riverwalk was one of my very favorite places, and Claire said that it was her favorite place.
Well, this blog entry ended out pretty verbose after all. And this was only a 2-night trip!
Over the course of Claire’s kindergarten year, we have polished the morning, off-to-school routine. The challenge is to always get Molly and Claire dressed, fed, packed, and in the car by no later than 7:30 every school day. Before kindergarten, we were spoiled by a completely flexible morning schedule. The only time constraint was for me to get back home in time for any morning meetings, and those rarely started before 9:00 am. It also a general matter of time being precious and me wanted to get the day going. With kindergarten, we have no such flexibility. We always have a 7:30 am deadline!
This routine evolved over time, but here is what we ended out with by the end of the school year. This is partially interesting because a couple of minutes literally can make or break the routine. It is hard to recover from a 5-minute distraction, and Kit will attest that I do not take well to any unexpected deviation from the routine.
6:20 My alarm goes off
6:25 I get up, get dressed, brush teeth, hopefully shave
6:35 I wake Claire up, carry her downstairs (still half asleep), and put her on the sofa. This is her alarm + snooze time. I try not to wake up Molly just yet. I get her some breakfast, normally cereal and milk, maybe some bacon and/or fruit as well on a good day. Also, usually a Claratin. We turn on a TV show to help wake Claire up.
6:40 I put food in Muffin’s bowl and top off her water. While Claire is eating breakfast, I go back upstairs, give Muffin her incontinence pill, and let (or, force) her out.
6:45 Back downstairs to check on Claire and get Molly’s breakfast ready. Molly always has a whole grain mini-bagel with cream cheese, whole milk, and Jimmy Dean sausage crumbles. Plus maybe some bacon and/or fruit as well on a good day.
6:55 Back upstairs to let Muffin back in, who by now is scratching on the back door. Then I get Molly up, a new diaper, and dressed. Then downstairs together.
7:05 Start Molly on breakfast. I like to have breakfast ready before she comes down so I can put her straight in her eating chair. Otherwise she tends to get distracted by something and won’t focus on eating. Tell Claire it’s time to get dressed.
7:10 Ice Claire’s lunch bag and grab Molly’s lunch box (Molly can use a refrigerator at school; Claire cannot). Get lunches and any other random school items for the day (paperwork, swim suits, diaper refills, library books, etc.) together and hopefully out to the car.
7:15 Put shoes on Molly, give her her nose spray, and do her hair. Usually Kit does Molly’s hair. Let Molly keep eating.
7:20 Make sure Claire is dressed (usually she is, but sometimes needs a gentle reminder). Make sure Claire has on her shoes and has brushed her hair too. Also reminder her, if necessary, to take her dishes into the kitchen. She likes to save these tasks for the very last minute.
7:25 Move everyone towards the car. If we start at 7:25, we are usually pulling out of the driveway by 7:30.
The first bell at Claire’s school is at 7:40. This gives us just enough time to get there, park, and walk to the room. If we run behind on time, we have to do “Circle Drive” drop off to make up time, which means Claire hops out of the car and goes into school by herself. She really prefers for Molly and I to walk in with her, so Circle Drive is an ever-present incentive to get going on time.
This routine took some work to get in place early in the year, and some occasional nagging to keep on track throughout the year, but mostly it ran on autopilot once established. This is such an engrained routine that Claire wakes up at 6:30 or earlier even on the weekends unless she’s completely exhausted, in which case she might sleep in until 6:45 or 7:00 at the latest. I keep telling her to sleep in, but 7:00 is the very best she can do. She always wants to get up and hang out before everyone else wakes up!
It does not seem so long ago that Claire started kindergarten. Today, Claire successfully completed kindergarten. Her final report card indicated that she has officially been promoted to first grade. She also received a “Certificate of Commended Attendance” for showing up most of the time. I am happy to say that Claire was not late to school once all year, and our morning off-to-school routine was “spit spot”. It became such a solid routine that I could (and sort of did) go through it in my sleep.
The last month of school has been full of fun-themed days such as Friendship Note Day, Water Day, Pajama Day, Pillow and Movie Day, Bubble Day, and No Shoes Day, to name a few. In fact, there were only two “normal” days in all of May. Totday, the last day of school, was Game Day. The kids got to bring in non-electronic games to play with their friends all day. Claire brought in Zingo, 
which is sort of a fun, kid’s bingo. We saw at least two other kindergarteners carrying the same game into school today. Kit has the week off, so we were all able to take Claire to school together. When we dropped Claire off to school, all the chairs tables were cleared to the side of the room to make space for games. Claire told us later that they really just played games all day. They took a lunch break, but no recess. This was a serious day of playing.
This was a good if sometimes bumpy school year for Claire. She learned a whole lot, including a solid start on reading, writing, and math. But not just that; she also gained some maturity this year, such as a better ability to focus and listen to directions. There was also a slightly confusing monkey bar incident where Claire was apparently unkind to another student and even had to visit the principal. Claire learned a lot about being sensitive to others from this incident. Luckily, this was not quite as serious of a situation as we thought it was at first. At first, we had bad information and thought Claire might be asked to leave the school!
Claire seemed to really enjoy kindergarten, and never complained about it or asked to stay home from school. She would clearly have missed playing with her friends too much. Her enthusiasm only flagged early in the year when she had a little trouble adjusting to her new school. Claire also learned to love Extend-a-Care after school. She seems to have figured out that Extend-a-Care is just a big play date every day after school. She made some good Extend-a-Care friends, had lots of extra outdoor play time compared to coming home, watched almost no TV on weekdays (no time), and even started Girl Scouts.
We went to pick up Claire early from Extend-a-care, around 3:00, on the last day so she would not be the last, lonely kid at school. When we got there, there were lots of kids, and Claire asked to stay at school a while longer so that she could do the water balloon fights and make sundaes. So Kit and I went back home for a couple of hours to let her have her final fun at school!
The rest of the evening featured melted frozen yogurt and a shared bath in which Molly peed in the water. Claire calmly noted that yes, the water did turn yellow, and kept playing. We had to get them both out quickly and sort of sponge-bathe them. Oddly enough, that was the first — and now clearly the last — time that happened all school year.
Claire is just wrapping up her very successful swim lessons. At her last class, the kids were told to wear regular clothes over their swimsuits for the “clothesline test”. The idea is to simulate accidentally falling into the water in full clothing and being able to get back to safety.
Claire, never shrinking from a challenge, chose to jump in wearing a long-sleeve shirt and skirt over her swimsuit. She was able to extra herself from the water with ease, which would definitely not have happened before this class. Way to go Elmer Swim School!
McG Kids 