One! One Wonderful Blessing! Muah-ha-ha!

Good grief. According to my hit-count stats, someone actually came and visited Elvis Sightings via a Google search on "horrid kindergarten transition stories"!

It's probably just as well that I held off on posting during the long weekend. I wasn't very good company -- I'm glad that we're on to the second week of school here.

Day Two of school, Thursday, got off to a better start for Joy. We avoided the noisy playground and the teacher had altered the routine such that snacks were not out on the tables. I learned later that Joy had actually managed to hang with the class for the gathering time, and got to use her GoTalk for sharing time and to indicate that she'd brought a bag lunch. But then she started getting warm and lethargic -- I got a call late in the morning that she was running a low-grade fever. I requested that they feed her lunch and call me if things got worse, and didn't receive a second call, but only because she'd crashed out at naptime and they didn't really get her up until time to go home, because it was a shortened day. Her fever at that point had climbed to 101.

Day Three, Friday, I stayed home with her. The lethargy had passed, the cranky took its place. We had varying levels of cranky all weekend long, with lots of swipes and bangs and hair-pulls (particularly on Rose, poor kiddo). Not a good weekend for me either, especially compared to how energized and excited I was at the beginning of the semester last year.

Today was better. And I think it's time for a blessing count.

1) Joy made it through a full day today, no calls to work. She even made it to music class with her classmates, and hung with it much longer than I'd have expected.

ONE! ONE WONDERFUL BLESSING!
MUA-ha-ha-ha!

2) When I went to pick her up, she wrapped me in a huge hug while her aide filled me in.

TWO! TWO WONDERFUL BLESSINGS!
MUA-ha-ha-ha!

3) We invited friends we ran into on the schoolyard for an afternoon playdate. Joy was laid-back, happy, giggled when playdate-dude came popping out to say "peek" at her (rather than yowling and swatting at him)!

(OK, you can fill in the count in your own mind from here.)

4) I'm so fortunate that I got to experience an ideal kindergarten transition, three years ago with Rose. Rose was so ready for kindie when her turn came. Huge grins in her first-day photos, no tears either from her or from me. Pretty much as smooth as it gets.

5) I managed a bike-commute home this afternoon in the face of wind-advisory-level winds. I am bike-commuter, hear me roar! Plus I realized that coming home at 2:30, I'll not have to worry about the encroaching darkness that traditionally has made me put my bike away for the season when we "fall back" for Daylight Savings. I can actually wait for the snow to fly!

6) Zucchini flowers. Which turn into zucchinis. Which turn into zucchini bread with mini-chocolate chips. Yum. (Can you spot the actual zucchini in the photo?)

SIX! SIX WONDERFUL BLESSINGS!
MUA-ha-ha-ha!