First Day of School

I cannot believe that I have a BIG FIRST GRADER! He has his own desk now and everything! The half day yesterday went well in spite of (my) nerves. He is disappointed not to have a couple of friends from kindy in class but thrilled to have some old friends there and the new teacher seems super nice. He did ask me why they are doing the same stuff as in kindergarten. I guess he decided to jump from coloring to calculous?! He says he "loves first grade" and I am SOOO glad!

summer adventures

It is hard to believe that the summer is almost over. My kiddo starts back to school on Thursday for a half-day! I must say that he has had quite the summer, swim camp, bug camp, lots of pool time and we just got back from an almost two week vacation to New York/New Jersey. On the flight to Laguardia he lost his first front tooth. Somehow the tooth fairy found him twice on the East coast! We started the trip off at my sister-in-laws apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan where Little Man enjoyed seeing his cousins. On a record-breaking hot day we met up with old friends of mine at Central Park and let our kids run through the sprinker/ fountains. The next day he got to go to his first Broadway show and he LOVED it!!! We saw Mary Poppins and it was a magical experience...particularly when Mary Poppins flies out over the audience and just happened to take a route right over our seats! We also got to visit with some friends of mine AND go to the children's museum AND the Central Park Zoo. (Highlight was seeing the sea lions getting fed, just like on Curious George) It was an acton-packed few days!
Then it was off to the Jersey Shore for lots of fun with friends, Grandparents and cousins. Boardwalk rides, beach and great summer-fun. Lots of pizza, ice cream, etc etc etc. Though it literally made me sick, I rode about 10 rides in a row with him (why didn't those spinny rides make me feel sick as a kid?) and he wanted to ride the log flume so I had a nervous break down as I had to clutch him (behind me!) with one hand and clutch the hand rail with the other as we went up up up the steep ramp and doooooowwwwwwwwwn --only to make it all worth it with the splash and his giggles at the end.
The times have definitely changed. We were in a cab in NY and the cabbie yelled the F-word at a pedestrian (something that wouldn't have fazed me in the least when I lived there) but this time I dressed him down for using inappropriate language in front of a child- ha!
When looking through the eyes of a child you want to keep everything so pure and innocent. There were two incidents that happened our trip that I wish I could have sheltered him from. On a lovely sunset cruise with my in-laws another boat intentionally came up next to our tour boat, going the same speed and there was a completely nude couple, totally having at it, on the deck of the boat in broad daylight. I kind of tackled my little boy and tried to distract him, but geeez! Then, driving back to New York on the last day of the trip we witnessed a bicyclist get hit by a car right in front of us. My little boy saw the whole thing--the cyclist laying still on the ground, my call to 911 (by the time I got them on the phone an NYFD vehicle had stopped) . It was very traumatizing. I took the moment to tell him how important it is to wear helmets and to always be careful around traffic. I haven't been able to find any news about the cyclist so hopefully no news is good news and he survived it/is okay.
But mainly I would say it was a trip of magic and wonder. Litte Man is literally into magic now and asks everyone if they know magic tricks. My friend Sandy told him about a magic store in Manhattan called Abracadabra so I took him there. An in-house magician took a good 30 minutes showing us magic tricks and little guy was enthralled.
I hope he will look back and view his sixth summer as magicall!