First Day of School and the Neighbor Girl

Yesterday was the girls' first day of school. We were all really excited about it.We woke up, ate breakfast, and got ready with our new school clothes on.

I guess the bad part of having school at 12:15 and being ready by 8:30 is that you have approximately three hours to spill on your new clothes, draw on your face and arms with new-found markers, and mess up your hair. So when I finally got their "first day of school" pictures as they were loading into the car, I sighed. I remembered last year I would wait to get the girls ready until 11:00. I wondered how I'd forgotten that. I guess I was just too excited to get them off to school!

Because of Rhett's flexible work schedule right now, he came with us to drop them off. We took Summer first. There were other kids in her class that were having a difficult time (screaming and bawling), and it made her a little nervous. She wanted me to stay a little with her. But the teacher at her table was really great, and she introduced Summer to all her new friends at their table (three kids were returning from last year, three new ones).

I was mostly worried about how Claire would go. Last year, she cried at goodbyes for almost two weeks. But she ran in, started meeting new friends, and was in teacher Mary's lap before we even said goodbye. She was excited to be back.

They were happy when I came to pick them up. And it sounds like they both had a great day. According to teacher Mary, she and Claire were looking at a book of baby pictures with big heads and chubby bodies. Teacher Mary was saying, "Claire, these babies look like Pyper. But they don't look like you because you're bigger." Claire responded, "They don't look like Pyper because they have big heads." We all laughed.

I'll post their first-day-of-school pictures next time.

On another note, we've had an interesting experience with our neighbor girl. She is five years old, and has two older brothers who are thirteen (one from the mom, one from the dad). So she's almost an only child. They moved in next door about a month or two ago. And she's constantly wanting to play with the girls. She comes over and rings the doorbell nonstop about three or four times a day (until Rhett disabled the doorbell). She yells through our screen door when she's in the yard to get our attention to see if she can come over to play. And she even sometimes has her dad come over with her to ask if she can come over. It was okay for awhile--the girls enjoyed having a new friend--until I realized that she is not the innocent little neighbor girl we thought she was. Now we are having to tell the girls what words are inappropriate in our house (swear words), and what kinds of things are not okay to do (like giving our toys to her through the fence, then she says they have to give her something else before she'll give them back). It was really stressful for a while, until a few days ago when the neighbor girl swore, and Claire said to me, "Mom, she said . . . " I told Claire, "Claire, tell her we don't say that here." So Claire turned around and said, "We don't say that here." I was there to reinforce that we don't use those words in our home. I was proud of Claire for verbalizing to her friend that something she did was not okay to her. A little while later, I had written Claire's name in sidewalk chalk on our sidewalk, and Summer and the neighbor girl had circled each letter of her name. Claire was heartbroken. So I wrote it again. I went inside and came out only a few minutes later when I heard some arguing. The neighbor girl was trying to circle the letters in Claire's name, and Summer was telling her not to because Claire didn't like it. It was really great seeing Summer standing up for Claire. I was very proud of that.

So . . . I guess the good thing about this is that I'm able to help coach and encourage the girls to stand up for what they believe in, to stand up for their standards, and to see them stand up for each other, when perhaps their first experiences of this would be at school when I'm not around. In this house, we really focus on using our words and expressing things we don't like that other people do (rather than hitting or screaming, etc.). And I'm proud to see the girls doing that at such a young age.

But, I don't know how much more asking, and begging, and pleading from the neighbor girl to come over I can take.

Anyone want to move in next door???