Look! It's Poison Ivy!

If I wasn't such a procrastinator, or sick with a cold (dang sore throat and runny nose), we'd have had more groceries in the house. Yesterday I was trying to be creative to find something to put in the lunchbox for the little guy. He could always buy a hot lunch at school -- he's had over $10 on his account since October -- but he doesn't want to spend his lunch break waiting in line, and asks to be "a lunchbox boy".

Well, no juice cups, and I haven't arranged to get a small thermos yet, so I had to scrounge to find an empty water bottle (that wouldn't leak) in one of the vehicles Monday morning to put a drink in it for him. Ok, good for lunch for Monday. Going to the store Monday to get groceries. WRONG. Didn't work out, long story, uninteresting to the world.

So here it is Tuesday morning and no snacks, no drinks for the lunchbox. I tell Christopher that I will bring him his lunch today, not to worry, and he says okay. He tends to worry if things are out of sequence or if he's unsure what is going on, we found it best to just tell him up front whenever possible.

And so started my day: bath for Christopher, breakfast, hook Maya to her leash, and all to the bus stop on time. Maya LOVES her job of going to the bus stop each day, and she even gets up to greet each of the kids as they arrive.

Then, online to fix up my silly little electronic farm experiment (that is temporary!), off to the grocery store, then the school, then to the medical lab to give blood for my annual exam that I had in October. Oops, I didn't go right away in Oct, then had to get a new Rx to get the lab work, then finally got to go today. Perhaps because I am NOT a fan of the needle, it may explain some of this story of procrastination.

Anyway, I got his lunch items, and fixed up his lunchbox and took it to school. When I arrived in his classroom, there was a sub in charge for the 2nd day. All the kindergarten kids were sitting in order at their little tables practicing their writing and were listening to the sub. About 5 of them, in a collective singsong and unison voice called out, "Christopher, your Mommy Is Here!" At that time he looked up with this uncertain expression, as if he wasn't sure why I was there, and what was going on, what was expected out of him. So I showed him his lunchbox and told him I brought it for him, and he smiled. Then, I gave him a kiss goodbye and told him to have a great day, that I had to go for now. He seemed okay with that and waved bye to me with a smile. No jumping up and running around or loud noises, or crying or any other disruptive behavior that we had become so used to in pre-school. Our little guy is maturing and growing up before our eyes.


Last night he even wanted to play school with us with his doodle pad. He was the teacher, and he did a MATH problem on the pad for me to solve! There was a whole process involved in doing this project. First, you have to write your name on the top of the page. So, I did. Then, you have to trace the first number, which was 2. He actually wrote his number nice and neat! YAY! So, I traced it. Then, you have to trace the number of items above, which were hearts he had drawn. Next, trace the next drawings after the "+" sign and then count them up so you know what to write in the next box, then write it in. Once ALL that is done, then you can count the first box of drawings and add to the second box, and THEN, you can write the correct answer on the line he provided below. We did several of these. The next drawings were bowling balls, all with 3 holes in them, and he had 3 + 4 of them. Well, we are excited about this, too! He loves to play school, but this is the first time he's wanted to do math! Woo Hoo!

And, now back to today, after dropping off his lunch in his classroom. I was walking down the hall and passed a little blond girl with cute, but messy curly hair and big smiles. She was carrying her agenda, a spiral notebook all the kids have that tracks their daily homework and communications between the school and the home. She looked at me and said hi, then stopped and said, with a big smile:

"LOOK! I've got Poison Ivy!" as she bent her little neck down so I could see the shiny rash on the right side of the back of her neck. Looked like the school nurse had just put some neosporin or other cream on it and sent her back to the classroom.

I had to smile, it was not anything at all that I was expecting to experience on this morning, and it was just too dang comical to resist. So I told her not to touch it, so it wouldn't spread, and she said okay and continued on to her class. I had to wonder, though, where she might have been playing to get poison ivy at this time of year. It's all over the woods, so you have to be careful if you go hiking. Christopher has been reading a couple books that mentioned poison ivy, so he's been asking us to go show him what it looks like, and asking if each and every plant in our yard is poison ivy. I'm just glad this little girl was not in his class.