Baseball Class

While I was at work at the Giants and the kids were at home hanging out with Uncle, Boppy got the idea to sign the kids up for a baseball class at the "San Francisco Baseball Academy".  

They were taken through throwing, hitting, fielding, and running drills.  Daniel bat right handed, but threw left handed.  Caroline initially grabbed a lefty glove, but as she tried to keep throwing with her gloved right hand, the teacher convinced her to switch to a right handed glove.

My favorite part, though, was that the coach commented to Uncle that he'd never seen kids who were so supportive of each other - they were cheering each other on through all of their ups and downs.

(Already dressed in her party dress, Caroline was not about to change clothes.)

Some Little Kindergarten Stories

As we packed bags for the second day of Kindergarten, Daniel was grabbing his sweatshirt and decided to share with us that, "Yesterday, you know what? I put on my sweatshirt in class in the classroom for an hour and you know what? I didn't even sweat! So all those things they said at Montessori how we can't wear our jackets inside the classroom and how we have to wear them outside? Those are LIES!"

The second week of school, Daniel started singing, in his best rocker style, "I love Lafayette - put another dime in the juke box, baby!"

At school this year, they do a "letter of the week" and then at the end of the week the kids bring in something that starts with that letter for a guessing game - this is instead of doing traditional "show and tell".  Last week, the letter was S and Caroline chose her item - a swing from her doll house - early.  But she spent the rest of the time being amazed at how much starts with the letter S - "Oh! SSSubway! There's so many S words!"

Just three weeks into the year, I had an exchange with Daniel about math.  He begged me to "do math" with him. He then proceeded to teach me the pattern of "1 + x =" using a number line and counters. Common core for the win in kindergarten.

They are going on their first of their 8-10 planned field trips this Friday - it's kind of amazing.  I don't remember going on more than a handful of field trips throughout the entire five years of my elementary experience.  They are also doing PE, dance, weekly library visits, reading buddies with fourth graders, outside education in the garden, writer's workshop, and technology practice in reading and math.  They have daily homework (which they do with help in the after school program) and I get weekly emails from each of their teachers giving updates and explanations.  

Every morning they line up with their classes and say the Pledge of Allegiance (Max asked me if he had to say it and I told him he didn't have to, he just had to be polite and respectful), which is followed by the "Pledge of Respect".  I'll admit that when I first heard the Pledge of Respect I thought it was cheesy, but it has definitely grown on me over the past month and a half. 

"I am a smart, special, and valuable person.
I respect myself and I respect others.
My words and actions are kind and honest.
I expect only the best in all that I do.
I am proud to be me."

That really is what I want them to learn in elementary school - all the rest of this is gravy, right?

The Presidential Election

The kids have been really into the Presidential election this year.  It occurred to me when I was watching an interview with Hillary Clinton last week that my kids fall into that very specific generation for whom she is poised to not only be the first female President, but also to be the first white President they have ever known.  

This is a collection of reactions the kids have had recently:

At dinner after the first debate:

Daniel: Is Donald Trump always versus everybody?
Me: What do you mean?
Daniel: Like, was Donald Trump versus Obama?
Me: No, this is the first time he's running for President, Obama ran against somebody else.
Daniel: Oh, was it a different girl Obama was versus?

Because that's just normal for him, that it could've been "another girl" running for President. 

After their first game of Monopoly:  

While Caroline was pretty conservative about her acquisitions, Max and Daniel were quite aggressive in buying properties and relished in collecting rent. Then at bedtime, Daniel asked, "is that really what Donald Trump is like, buying everything and then making people pay him for it? I don't want to be like that."

About two weeks into the school year: 

Caroline just shared that her new friend Becca told her that "Hillary Clinton has to go like this 

[waves her arms in front of her chest kind of like a robot] so that she doesn't get hit by Donald Trump's gun." Then she asked, "Does Donald Trump really have a gun? Is he going to win?"

I was not prepared for this conversation at 6am.

They also really love my "Hillary Kitty" tshirt - a Hello Kitty dressed as Hillary Clinton in an adorable blue power suit and a short blonde haircut.  

They now ask every adult they see if they're voting for Hillary Clinton, and when they get a YES, they give high fives.  I worry what may happen if we ever meet a NO.

When Mommy's Away...

I snuck out of town for the weekend to go to the LA Podcast Festival and Uncle stayed with the kids. That means I got lots of texts with updates on how they were doing.  Including the fact that Caroline slept with Daniel to help him calm down: 

And then the PAR Course they all went on:

And hanging out at home or taking the dolls for a walk:

Caroline taught herself to tie a "side pony"

And Max even lost a tooth!

With all that fun, Caroline passed out on her brothers' floor the next night:

 Oh, and here they were at swimming class that Friday:

THANKS, UNCLE!!!

And now we are six!

The kids have grown and changed so much...but not entirely!

To celebrate the kids' REAL birthday, I went to school for back-to-back-to-back classroom celebrations.  We started with Max's class, which met outside right before recess.  Max got to wear his special birthday crown and then we passed out Star Wars fruit snacks and stickers to all his classmates.

I got to stay and watch the kids play through recess and then I followed Daniel in to his class where he got to wear his crown and sit in the "special chair" to be serenaded by his classmates before passing out their birthday goodies.

And lastly it was Caroline's class.  She agreed to pose for this picture but didn't want any others taken.

That's ok, because I made this to embarrass her by showing how much she looks like Mommy when Mommy was six years old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!