first day of kindergarten

today was hayden michael's first day of kindergarten! he couldn't WAIT to walk to the bus stop this morning.
there were only 2 other kids at the bus stop. yet another day and another reminder that yes, we are sending our child to redford schools. there were mullets and tails and smoking and talk of how he's not afraid of cops. cops around here think you should be afraid of them just because they have a badge, but he's not. and one time a cop wanted him to go wake his daughter up and he said "i ain't waking my daughter up! you can if you want her that badly."
oh. and did i forget to mention that one of the little boys names was legoless? i just thought it was a horrible name. like maybe these people didn't have enough money to buy the dream set of legos they wanted right around the time she gave birth. then when we got home, dave informed me it's even worse than i imagined. it's the name of a frickin' elf from lord of the rings.
oh hayden, i'm so sorry.
so anyway. the bus stop is just 2 doors down from us, on the same side of the street which is great. it was supposed to come around 8:44am but it didn't end up coming until just after 9am. when school starts. dave was even able to go into work late so he could see hayden off on his very first day.
hayden went right on in and headed to a window seat where he sat and waved goodbye to us. i only had a couple of tears in my eyes...not nearly the emotion that i had last year when i sent him off on the bus for preschool. i was glad i had gotten it out of the way last year! but it still was sad to think that this is it. he is now officially in school. i can't just let him skip a day to go pick apples because it's only preschool. dave seems to think that i can still take him out for a reason like that, but i'll try to set a good example.
when the bus pulled away, we headed back home and hung out in a much quieter than normal house. i had forgotten what it sounds like with just talan around! after a bit talan and i headed out to toys r us for the big train sale to get some early christmas shopping done. something i didn't forget is how great it is to be able to go shopping with a kid that has no clue and won't remember that he actually played with one of his gifts in the cart the day you (or santa) bought it.
we came back home and waited around for hayden to come home and hear all about his day. i had gotten a phone call before we left for the store telling me that the bus was actually going to be dropping him off at our house each afternoon around 12:18pm which is perfect.
i waited outside, armed with my camera, and the bus pulled up probably about 12:25 or so. hayden came bounding happily off the bus showing me his new and improved name tag. the first thing he said? "i gotta go in and eat lunch now! i'm starving!" yeah, right.
he told me he had cinnamon graham crackers for snack and that 3 kids from his old class are in his kindergarten class. nicholas, elijah and hailey.
when i asked him if he learned anything he said "yeah, lots" but didn't go into specifics. i asked if he learned any letters today and he told me "no. and i already know all of my letters, mom!" stupid me.
he did tell me he got a little warning when he went down the slide before waiting for the person in front of him to go off but his card still stayed on green and didn't move to a yellow. AND he didn't even push anyone today! ahhh, progress.
in his backpack was a little rhyme from his teacher about letting him go off to kindergarten which made me tear up more than the bus actually did. and at the bottom was a picture of his whole class. how great are digital cameras?!
all in all it seems like hayden had a great day! now he'll start soccer tomorrow and get ready for a full week of school next week!


thanks for the new backpack, jessica and justin!:



the long walk to the bus stop:

waiting for the bus:

here it finally is:



he tried opening the window at first:
taking my baby away:
home again, home again:

this was the giant leg hug i got:
first day of kindergarten? check!:

kindergarten orientation

despite the fact that most all of the other schools in the area started school on tuesday, redford, or at least redford's kindergartner's still haven't started.
today hayden and i headed to his new school, macgowan, for his kindergarten registration. and tomorrow will be his first day of school.
we received a call this morning tell us his bus schedule. he will be picked up 2 houses down from ours around 8:44am and will be dropped off around 12:20pm. our days won't be too much different from his preschool years, they just get started a little later which is fine by me!
dad came over to watch talan so i could just be with hayden and not have to worry about a growling, running around baby. we found hayden's classroom (the koala room) and lined up outside where he will line up every morning before school starts.
we met his teacher, mrs. holmes, and the assistant teacher, mrs. arnett. both seem really nice. poor teachers.
when we walked into hayden's classroom we were sent on a scavenger hunt to find things like the housekeeping area, blocks on a shelf, bathroom, cubby holes, etc. when he found everything on the list he was able to pick a sticker and a pencil.
hayden was then able to play with some of the toys that were set out on the tables for a bit.
he knew one little boy from preschool last year, but unfortunately he will be in the afternoon class instead of morning with hayden.
while the kids were playing i was able to look around and realize that we really were in redford. one mother was there dressed up nice and fancy in her rose colored sweatpants. one mom brought not only her kindergartner, but also her 3ish year old with a pacifier and her two babies that were dressed in nothing more than a diaper. awesome.
after the kids cleaned up they all sat on the rug and played a little game with the teacher and then moved over to the reading area where they sang two songs, read a book and the teacher wrote them a little message on the board.
from there, all of the kids went outside while the parents stayed inside and heard a little more about what they would be doing in school this year.
after that was probably hayden's favorite part, the point where he got a popsicle while leaving.
he seemed to have a good time and was really excited about starting school tomorrow. he was already more than willing to throw his hand up and answer questions whenever they were asked. and even when they weren't asked.
i haven't been too emotional about the whole thing and i'm hoping that i got it all out of my system last year when i put him on the bus for the first time. it still is a big step knowing that it's kindergarten though. so we'll see how it goes. i do think we are both ready for him to start back to school though!

waiting to go inside:

at least he's raising his hand. although he doesn't realize that not EVERYONE gets called on so he got a little upset about that:
found his cubby...and his name was even written in his favorite color! he was quite excited about that:
hayden's kindergarten classroom:


play time:


circle time:
mrs. holmes. she has no idea what she's getting herself into this year:
"hello hayden" "hello mrs. holmes":

singing time:
he has all the answers:
story time:

in the car on the way home he asked if he could have a popsicle at home. "but i haven't had a popsicle at home yet" was his logic:

with a side of rice and beans, please

the other day i was downstairs and hayden started yelling "mom! you gotta come up here and see this! i made talan a taco!" when i came up, hayden then proceeded to "eat" talan.
dad was correct in saying that it's more like a burrito, but hayden doesn't eat taco's or burritos so i was impressed that he came up with that on his own.
of course when i unrolled talan, hayden wanted to do it too. and then talan beat him.

how his mind works

so the other week we took a trip to the dr. for talan's 15 month check up. as we were getting off the expressway i noticed a state policeman on a motorcycle and i pointed it out to hayden. he thought it was pretty cool that a policeman was on a motorcycle. then we saw another one, and then another.
as we drove past them hayden said "that's crazy. whoever heard of a policeman on a motorcycle before?! it only has one seat! hey mom! he can't take me to jail on a motorcycle because it only has one seat!"

santa delivers

this year for christmas hayden actually asked for something other than "a new thomas christmas train, a new percy christmas train and a new james christmas train." what he asked for: aquadots. santa got those aquadots about a week or two before there was a major recall on them because of the simple fact that they contained the date rape drug.
so santa gave hayden the aquadots machine for christmas with a note stating that the elves were busy making the actual "dots" and they would deliver them just as soon as they could.
in all of those months, hayden has asked a couple of times if the aquadots had been delivered yet. i made several calls to the north pole after originally being told they MIGHT be done before christmas, then it was moved to january, then april, then june, then i gave up.
then today i heard a jingle at my door and when i went to get the mail realized the elves had FINALLY finished those dots. now called "pixos" which will be in stores by early august (i certainly hope so because our initial shipment of 1000 is going quickly.)
the company sent a note apologizing for everything and making sure i knew that these new and improved dots were completely safe and were no longer made by the same chinese company that made the original date rape dots. my favorite part of the letter? where it said "we learnt a lot." guess the northpole doesn't have spell check. or english classes.
hayden was so excited to finally get his aquadots he almost wanted to stay in and not go swimming. he eventually decided he would swim a little bit and then come in to play with his new christmas gift.
he loved them, although he had a bit of an issue. at one point he must have added an extra dot to a dog he was making then what the sample called for and he freaked out a bit. i kept telling him it was fine and he can make anything that he wants. he quickly got over it. then, later that evening while dave and i were out he apparently had a total meltdown while jessica was watching him. crying and asking "why can't i do anything right? why do i always mess everything up all the time?" he was overly tired from 3 days of being outside with no naps and eventually got over his anal/controlling issues.
the next day he even decided to give the boy he was making a different color pair of pants. then decided to just give him blue like the sample said. but then he made the boys eyes two different colors. but then rethought that and decided to just make them black like the sample asked. oh well, at least he likes to follow directions some of the time!

hayden jumps and swims...but mostly jumps

would keep him up and even less trust that after not swimming in a big pool for a year or two, hayden was not too fond of aunt ruth and uncle jeff's pool in florida when we went in november of 2006. he refused to even go on the stairs of the "big pool" and strictly stayed in the little hot tub area. he had absolutely no trust that the floatiesdave would. any time dave got out of the pool and started walking anywhere close to hayden, hayden would jump up and run away, screaming.
last year we took him to a lake once and he actually did surprisingly well for the short amount of time that we were actually in it.
just a few days ago, jessica let us come over to a house she was house sitting at so the boys could play on the trampoline and swim. as soon as we got there hayden was up on the ladder trying to climb down into the pool. we told him he wouldn't be able to touch the bottom and we helped him put the floaties on. he couldn't wait to get in.
at first he floated around with the floaties on his arms and a ring around him. he then lost the ring and moved on to a raft. a bit later, he was swimming around with only the floaties on his arm. he still had no trust in dave but did a fairly good job of listening when dave and justin tried teaching him how to kick his legs and move his arms.
soon hayden was jumping off of the ladder making the jumps further and further out. at one point he jumped over dave. and then he even jumped INTO the floating ring and actually made it his very first try. i thought i had gotten that on video, but i'm not seeing it now so i guess not.
hayden has been talking about the pool and swimming ever since. we'll have to find some bigger pools and lakes to take him to this summer. and he has been requesting to go on water slides ever since he found out they existed from the back of a cereal box.