The start of the school year post

J said it best when she said, “Too bad we don’t have a kid that likes to read.  LOL”. As you browse the pics today, keep that in mind.  

It’s Monday and the first day of school.  It’s a love/hate kind of day for me.  I love that Kiddo is back to school; not only for the time it gives me, but also for her to continue learning, growing, playing, making friends, et al.  I hate it because I do miss Kiddo.  I miss lunches, errands with my little buddy, and just playing and being in her world for parts of the day.  I also miss the laziness.  We don’t have to get moving and get dressed at 7:30am, we can just lay about until 8:30 or so and then get the day started.  

I will, however, adjust.  Trust me on that.  

We’ve been in back to school mode recently, doing a bunch of little things for Kiddo and to get pointed in that direction.  We tried on the school uniform and thankfully, this year, she will have PE on Mondays, so she can wear her PE uniform and not the dressed up and buttoned up version.  Not only did she hate the formal uni, but it was a pain to wash and iron and just get ready weekly.  Besides that, if anyone from LQ or her class wanted to go and play after school, I’d always pull her home and have her change quickly.  Now… Well, now I can just let her have at it.  No worries about a white button up shirt and tie.  She can charge around in her gym uni and call it a day.  Besides, she’s pretty cute in that as well.  At least, in my opinion.  :P

J joined a climbing gym and has been doing that more and more and good for her.  I love climbing J.  She’s active, she loves to talk about it and tell me what she’s doing and as someone who has climbed in the past, I get it and know the challenges and accomplishments that she refers to when she’s telling me about it.  That’s a lot of fun.  Also, however, she can take Kiddo and let her burn energy as she monkeys up the walls.  Besides that, Kiddo loves it and loves to tell me about it as well.  All the little things she’s doing, how high she got on a wall, some of the challenges she’s facing or that she overcame.  It’s cool for an 8 year old to have that kind of vocabulary, but also have the skill set to climb.  It is harder than you’d think and takes a ton of core strength.

It was also time for the ladies to go and get their toes back to school ready.  Kiddo got hers done as well and thank the gods for that.  I’m on nail clipping duty with her and she always complains about her toes when I clip them.  So, better to let a professional have at them.  Better them than me.  Besides, as you can see, she hates it.  HAHA. Long time readers may remember that we’d take her to get her fingers or toes (or both) done in BKK and she was chill with that as well.  Cool that it’s still affordable enough for us to be able to still take her to get that every once in a while.  God help her teenage and early 20s partners, she’s not going to be high maintenance at all.  

I also took her to get her hair trimmed and cleaned up before the start of the year.  Just a trim, about 3cm off, but it looks much better.  Crisper.  More even.  Much less tangles in the last few days as well.  Again, she was great.  Laid back and got her hair washed and conditioned before the trim.  Afterwords, we stopped and got an ice cream treat for her before biking back home.  

Kiddo and J took a library trip on Saturday to return the books that Kiddo had crushed and get her some fresh ones.  In their usual library routine, they got lunch and then stopped at a Starbucks for J to recharge with a coffee.  It was HOT this weekend, so, even though they took the Metro to the library, they opted to get a car home.  I can’t say I blame them.  It was 38 degrees here (100.5F) and the feel like temps were 45 degrees (114F) and that’s just stupid hot.  Too hot, I agree with J, to walk the 0.8 km from the Metro to home, especially since it’s only partially in the shade and the UV levels were at 11.  However, at the Starbucks, Kiddo just fell into Kiddo mode and kept herself entertained for a bit until it was time to pack up and move on.

We also picked up some new sneakers for school, got her backpack ready and loaded with the needed supplies, water bottle, and snack.  Did some trying on of things to know what fit and what wouldn’t work this year.  We also made sure we had some family time, some play time, and some chill time.  J also is feeling the back to schoolness of this all and I needed to balance her feelings and needs as well.  I tried my best and think I did a good job of it.  Both girls were all smiles and full of nervous excitement walking out this morning, so I would say that it a success.

Let’s go, Kiddo… It’s a new school year.  You and Mumma are both gonna do great and have a fun year.  You’re gonna grow and learn and meet a ton of friends.  Plus, you get to do basketball on Wednesdays as your after school club, so that will be fun as well.  We also get to fall back into our after school routines of snack and homework and you telling me all about your day.  Plus, the weekends will be more fun, because it won’t just be another mumma and dada day, but it will be a special day.  Plus, sleeping in.  It’s a new year, but the same you; just as cute, funny, playful, and thirsty for knowledge as ever.  I can’t wait o hear about the first day…. And every day thereafter.