Now School, New School

I didn't really post about Mother's Day, so let me say that it was a good, fun, weekend of sunshine and family hijinks. Friday night we had a real grown-up dinner date, Saturday we went to the farmer's market one town over, and later had a picnic at Kubota Gardens in Seattle. For both events I practiced not thinking about rushing on to the next thing, and I have to admit, it was worth the effort it took. Sunday I FINALLY got the little present Naomi had been agonizing over handing over or withholding since she had brought it home several days before- it's a frame she decorated, and drew a picture for.


In the afternoon, she and I took a bike ride around the new school she'll be going to. I can't believe I haven't thought of doing this before. She loved peering into the classroom windows, seeing the art work, reading some of the words written on large signs around the walls. And a few days later, we stopped in on the way to school, now school, to drop off her registration for Kindergarten. This girl, who seems so big and grown up at her preschool, who is clearly the oldest in her Sunday school class, who definitely runs the show when she and Muriel are playing, seemed so Little compared with the kids walking around at the elementary school. As an aside, when we talk about elementary school, she talks about Kindergarten, first grade, and last grade. Are they in first grade? Are they in last grade? Hee.

Friday I took Naomi to her five-year-old checkup, also known as her must do before Kindergarten check-up. She was super good and healthy, growing right up the curve like she is supposed to. She had a vision test, at which she stood up straight and tall and got around (after a slow start) to reading the letters in her actual five-year-old voice and not the baby talk voice that sometimes comes out when she feels the need to be silly as a mask for shyness. The nurse asked questions about what she can do: Can she name four colors? Can she count? A couple of other funny ones, I can't remember them now. The nurse also gave her a sheet of paper with three symbols on it that she had to duplicate, and on the back she was to write her name and draw a picture of herself. She got right to work with the ballpoint pen, and of course did not stop with a picture of herself- she had to be wearing a crown and a dress covered with stars and be accompanied by a cat and a smiling heart face.

When the doctor came, it was a joyful reunion- we haven't seen her in over a year, not only because our children have been remarkably healthy, but because she has been out on maternity leave with her second little boy. She is the nicest, best doctor ever in the world, to borrow the superlative favored by my children. Not only does she take very good care of our children, and support and reassure us copiously about our decisions around their health, but she also appears to take real delight in seeing them, and in how they are growing, and just generally gives the kind of sincere and believable positive family feedback that you need every so often. Even though Naomi hasn't seen her in a while, she remembered the doctor, and how much we like her, and immediately adopted the half-spazzy dork behavior that takes over when Gramma first shows up, for example. It was funny.

Then, the shots! I had told her she was getting a shot, but it turned out to be four. If it had been one or even two, she would have come through with her extreme courage intact. But with two in each arm, I can't really blame her for crying, which she did only for a moment. When it was all over we helped ourselves to a sticker (purse dog wearing a sweater won out over Thomas the Tank Engine and Spider Man), and headed to the mall food court for pancakes (her choice for lunch). I had sort of envisioned a chatty mother/daughter luncheon, but we both just sat there eating, paying maybe too much attention to the other people around us. Still, it was fun to be with just her. She ate a lot of pancake! Then it was back to now school, her little arms sticking out of her sleeveless dress, two bandaids each.