Small Town Girl

We spent this morning in downtown Sacramento. Chloe, Chase, Tate & I joined Dawn, Matt & Jessie (& some friends) at the Walk for Alzheimer's which started at the Capitol building & then was 3 miles of  walking around downtown. While I'm sure that I should opine on the walk & those we were walking in memory of, I'm too tired & just want to share something Chloe said before I forget. As we were driving home, Chloe said "So, why do people put those bars on their windows? Is it to keep their kids in? Or is it just for decoration?" My response - "Oh, how cute, you're from the country! Those bars are to keep people out."

And that's why we live in Auburn! So our kids think that bars on windows are for decorative purposes.

Oh, Tate.

Jake & I took Tate with us this evening to run some errands. What started out as a grocery shopping trip ended up as a completely different thing. Tate is still in a toddler bed. He's small but seriously...it's time. Kaleb, who is in the same room as Tate, is in a bed that is pretty much smashed to bits. Since Kaleb's bed is also where his clothes live, it's a double problem. So, we ended up going to a few different places trying to find a fairly economical way to get both boys beds + a storage solution for all of their clothes/stuff. It's also a little complicated to figure out a way for an almost 13 year old to feel like he has his own space while sharing a room with his 5 year old brother.
Tate has decided that he must sleep on a top bunk. But then he didn't really like climbing the ladder. "So, maybe you should sleep on the bottom then?" Nope. He has numerous reasons. I really hope this top bunk thing works out. Tate said a few things this evening that made me sigh and think to myself  "Oh, Tate. I hope you can learn skills to allow you to remain functional in society."
Aside from all of the reasons he came up with for needing to be on the top bunk even though he doesn't like the ladder -
He was very disturbed by one of the ladders which had uneven rungs. "Why didn't they just make the steps be the same all the way?" "Where will my foot go when there should be another step but it's missing?"
He was quite annoyed by the fact that Jake parked the truck unevenly within the parking spot. "Dad, you are not straight. Do you see that line? You're supposed to be in the line that far."
Best of all - He's in a stall next to me in the bathroom & says "Am I supposed to flush this toilet?" For a second, I admit to being perplexed. I looked around to see if it was an automatic flushing kind of thing. No. "Yes, Tate, you should flush the toilet." As I'm thinking - what the heck? Why wouldn't you flush it? "BUT, IT'S REALLY REALLY DIRTY." Ah, it becomes clear. Let me just point out that it was a very nice bathroom as public restrooms go & I didn't think EWWWW when I went in (which is saying something). It's OK, Tate. We will wash your hands. Yes, flush. We flushed, we washed (and washed).
I'm glad that at this point we can talk him through his little annoyances and that they aren't (usually) stopping him from moving through his day. I'm also glad that all of the people in his life so far are patient with his lil quirks & also just sigh and say "Oh, Tate..." and help him move past whatever is making his little brain spin like a top.

Homecoming Week

It's Homecoming week at Placer. So far - Nerd Day & Class Color Day. The big news of the week is that today was the Powderpuff game. Though this is Tanner's Senior year, it is also the first year that he has taken an active role in all of the festivities. I'm so glad that he is participating this year. A ton of preparation has happened over the last few weeks. Tanner has been practicing for their half time show and rally appearances plus getting all of the music ready for his team. I have to say that to see him doing all of this is rather surprising. He's not exactly the most extroverted kind of kid. His injured ankle held him back a bit today but we all had fun watching them "cheer", dance & act silly. Banking awesome memories before he has to be a grown up!

I knew it was coming but.....

Tate's first couple of weeks of Kindergarten went much better than I had anticipated. He says he loves his school, he's fond of his teacher, he has made friends in his class and, of course, loves Miss Cathy in the office. (Miss Cathy also happens to be his teacher at church.) Although there were a couple of teary days when it was time for me to leave him there, the tears didn't even fall - they just welled. He has had to use several bandaids but has "been brave" about the scrapes. 

One day last week, I was in the office when Tate's class came out of their room. Although he saw the truck so he knew I was there, he panicked a bit & started to cry. He has also started to ask the questions-

"what's the plan for tomorrow?" "who is going to pick me up?" "when will you be able to work in my classroom?" "how many days until Wednesday?" "after today, how many more days of school?" Etc. Mornings have slowed down. Instead of being up and dressed, he's sort of up and not dressed. Best of all, he is having some major clothing issues. If his shorts hit at the wrong point of his leg, they are bothering him. If he can't button his jeans on his own, they don't work. If the jeans aren't well, approved, then they're just unacceptable. I haven't quite gotten a clear idea of what the specific trouble with jeans is but I'm not going to put a lot of effort in to finding logic in his objections. He won't wear jean shorts at all. I went to Old Navy last week and found him some sweat pants and some pull up cotton pants that he tried on and said he would wear. I thought that I had solved the no jeans problem. You'd think I would have learned by now. He wore the grey pair yesterday and they were totally fine but the blue pair were "falling off" today. He didn't like where the bottom of the pants hit his ankle although they are exactly the same as the ones from yesterday. Finding clothes for school is becoming an issue. Hooray for me. Something else to try to puzzle through every day. 

Best of all, his new pajamas - which he picked out - have a big problem. One of the cuffs is tighter than the other one. This is not cool. 

I'm excited about this. We've started crying in the morning when it's time to get ready for school. Then we cry some more while arguing about what clothes to wear. We cry when doing homework. And, just like the first day of school, this morning when I dropped him off, I ran away when he wasn't looking.