Back to School

It's Back to School night.  Already.  (And a romantic way to spend your 8-year wedding anniversary I might add.)

Each Monday, the class shares what they did over the weekend and Mrs. Halkias writes it out on the board.  The kids were full of adventures... Marco "slept in his bed." 

Um... 

I asked him what about swimming at Brookie's and a sleepover with Niko and going with Nolan and his family to buy new books at the bookstore.... "Oh yeah, those are good ones.  I forgot."


One of the Moms shared a cute story with me as told to her by her son, Jack.

"Mom, Marco is my best friend. Whenever I'm scared, like when we line up, I just look at Marco and he gives me a big THUMBS UP. Also, he shared a treat with me from his lunch... but I don't think he really liked it. Can I bring a rice krispie treat to share with him tomorrow?"

I'm honestly not sure I would've known this was Marco if his name wasn't under it.  Yikes.  Apparently, combing his hair is a new morning must.

 His self portrait.

I asked one of the other Moms, are we always going to see each other this much?  Her response: "Only for nine years."

Kinder Report

Day one
I picked Marco up at aftercare and the teachers said he had a hard day, even crying.  Well, obviously, they weren't talking about my kid. I figured it was the first day and they likely couldn't remember all their names. It just didn't seem like his personality to me. And then she added, "I told him that his big blue eyes looked so sad with those tears." Oooh. 

It turns out that only a small handful of kinder kids went to aftercare. So, when class let out, there was a gaggle of parents excited to hear about their first day. But... not us. 

They said he perked up when Niko arrived from first grade.  They spent the afternoon playing kick ball and basketball. 

More expectedly, by the time I arrived to pick him up, he didn't want to go. 

Day two
He was excited to show me the table where he sat (the blue table), introduce his teacher (Mrs. Halkias) and proudly show me that he can skip a rung on the monkey bars and make a basket "in the big basket!"

Day three
He was excited to eat waffles for breakfast, can you even believe what Dad made for me?  and thrilled to finally don the uniform, are all the boys going to be wearing this?

I mean, so what if he was the only kid dropped in shorts with no sweatshirt?  He's a Cecchin with a reputation for weather immunity to live up to. 

Handsome little devil. 

First Day: Rest of Your Life

Day one: Kindergarten

I wake Marco "Happy Kindergartener!"  He's all smiles.  And he thinks he's taller. 

Jeff tells him to get dressed.  Blank Stare.  Beeline straight to me

(Whispering) "Mooooom, tell Dad I have to wear my school suit."  To read: uniform.

"Oh, sorry sweetheart, you don't have to start wearing your uniform until Monday.  Today you have free dress."  (Two words that I never thought I'd utter past 1994.  Sigh.) 

"Wha, well, can I at least wear my new shoes?!"

On our way out of the house, "SEE!?  Mom - look!  I can reach the big lock now and I couldn't reach it before I was in kindergarten!"

He still didn't completely trust that he didn't have to wear his uniform to school.  "Are they going to look at me because I'm dressed like this?"

Nearly late for our first drop off, Marco made a quick transition into the classroom and we jetted for the parent coffee hour.  We immediately surrounded ourselves with our parent favs that we've picked so far.  I guess eventually Marco will choose his own friends, but for now we'll throw him together with the kids whose parents we like.  :)

So, here's our kindergartener:

The Happiest Place on Earth

They say Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth.  So, in our ongoing effort to make Marco like us and as a treat for kindergartners, we took him to Disneyland for two days on our way to this year's week in Catalina.

We were basically only in the park for four hours each day, but we pretty tackled everything we wanted.  Monorail front car...

Space Mountain - I love having a brave kid.

Star Tours - (screaming) "ARE WE REALLY IN SPACE?  THAT WAS SO FAST!"

Pirates of the Caribbean "Uh, are the pirates going to kill us too?  I didn't really want to go on this ride."

Buzz Lightyear - (x3) A fan favorite.

Dumbo - Zzzzzzz...

Matterhorn - (x2) Marco's favorite roller coaster "I'm not even scared of the abombable snowman from Monsters Inc."

Goofy's Roller coaster - Zzzzzzz...

Teacups - "Dad and I were spinning it so fast Mom, you were going to barf!"

Nemo's Adventure - "Are we really underwater?"

Autopia - "I'm a terrible driver because I've never tried it before!!"

Mickey's House - The house actually spit us right into line to see Mickey.  Marco was genuinely, excitedly nervous to see Mickey.  He hugged him with the gusto usually reserved for Santa.  After we left... "How come he didn't talk to me?"

Disneyland hasn't changed much in 15+ years except they added Nemo to the submarines and Johnny Depp to the Pirates of the Caribbean (you're hearin' it).

We also found time for swimming and the water slides at the Disneyland hotel.  It may have been his favorite part.  Next year, we'll vacation in Stockton.

 

I told Marco he could choose one toy in Disneyland and he BEGGED for a Pirates of the Caribbean sword.  After much tracking, we found this $6.95 gem.  It might be the cheapest thing in Disneyland.  Tough little spendthrift.

Since we stayed at the hotel, we got to get in an hour early.  Worth it.  There was no one there, hence the perfect obligatory castle pic.



 

But THESE were the favorite characters we saw.  :) 

 

Finally, Marco got to build his own remote control car in Downtown Disney.  Here he is building (with his sword obviously) and with his new car in it's "garage."

 

Synopsis: Marco liked it. That's the honest truth. When Grandma Cecchin asked how excited Marco was, Jeff said, "He liked it - he's his mother's son. But, he also went on all the roller coasters - he's his mother's son." 

We were so tired from our vacation that we needed a vacation, so we hopped over to Catalina Landing and headed 26 miles across the sea...

Summer Ball

On a summer-fun high, we decided in the morning to hit an evening Giants game.  I love summer!

We had great seats. Marco’s eyes were bright seeing his favorite players from TV and, of course, Lou Seal.  He couldn’t believe his good fortune that he got to eat a hot dog, peanuts and cracker jacks and spent the first part of the game tracking the cotton candy guy.  We told him he could choose a treat in the fourth inning and he was pretty panicked they’d run out of the four color sugar bomb that’s made for four 5-year olds.  Alas, they had enough for him. 

He was very disappointed that he didn’t catch a foul ball, but was thrilled that he was tall enough to slide the Big Guzzler! 

 

We spent an inning riding all the slides and our last two innings in the bleachers.  Always a man of the people, I think he preferred the bleachers because of all the yelling and the batters would “for sure hit a home run to the bleachers.”

Cold, windy, down by five runs, 10:30 p.m. and the top of the 9^th…. we packed it in.  “Why aren’t we staying until the end?”  Good fan. 

 Here’s the proof: