Charlie starts Kindergarten....

And there it is.  Charlie started Kindergarten. He has been in school for over a month now.  We are coming up on his Fall Break, and I have nothing but great things to report. His teacher, Ms. Uszenski (of course he would get the teacher that is impossible to pronounce), has been a kindergarten teacher for 19 years.  She adores Charlie and I know this b/c she has already called me twice in the last month to tell me so.  She has used the word "perfection" more times than I count.  Apparently he is the model student and she thinks he hung the moon.....again, not my opinion, straight from Ms. Uszenski's mouth.  I feel a little bad for Charlie.....he is the first child, same as his Mommy and Daddy.  He is the first grandchild in both our families, so there is a little pressure to perform well and so far, he is exceeding expectations.  Of course we think grades are important, but most importantly, we want him to be a hard-working, ethical, honest, loving, caring, sharing, sweet young man.  We couldn't be more proud, and just hope that he continues to set a great example for Hayden, as well as other kids in his class.

He started off taking his lunch, but is now buying his lunch on days that they have things he likes.  He thinks it is cool to buy his lunch, and it's one less day I have to pack one, so I am fine with that.  He has PE, art, music and weekly trips to the library. His teacher says he is usually one of the last kids done with work in the class, not because it takes him that long, but b/c he wants it to be perfect.  Ha!  Can't imagine where he got that from! He does ASP on Mondays and Fridays and I pick him up on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays, as well as drop him off in the morning.  He doesn't seem to mind ASP.  I think it involves a lot of cookies, movie-watching and playing on the playground, so what's not to like? He has a lady interest named, Chloe.  Verdict is still out on her, but he did inform Hayden early on in the month that he may not be able to marry her anymore, but she would always be his sister!  Cracked us up.  He wanted to let her down easy :)

Miss Haydini has been doing great. We have moved on from Miss Barbara in the 2's room to Miss Theresa in the 3's room .  She loves it.  She is a big girl and walks right in after hugging me and most mornings, never looks back.  She is only there on Mondays and Fridays.  We were going to do a Tuesday/Thursday pre-school class at CFUMC, but I ended up being selfish and decided to keep her with me those 2 mornings during the week.  I see how fast time goes by and I know I will never get this time back with her.  She will be in pre-K 5 days per week starting next year (it pains me to type that....where does the time go?!?!?), and I just want her all to myself for as long as humanly possible.

So, we have really started to focus on writing her uppercase letters, learning how to spell Welch, her telephone number and address. She already knows her numbers up to 20, colors, and shapes.  She's getting better at counting, sitting still and coloring....she has a little more energy than Charlie and sometimes just keeping focused for 10 minutes at a time can be a challenge! We'll practice more on printing lower-case letters and numbers next.  What else can I say about Hayden?  I enjoy my time with her so much.  She is my little side-kick.  She randomly tells us she loves us so much....which I never get tired of and she is not shy about busting out a hug or kiss at any time :) She is spunky, full of energy, strong-willed, and just plain fun to be around.

The only pictures I have from this first month of school is from the first day....