Today is the first day of Kindergarten!!
Wow….I remember when I was pregnant with Kwabena back in 2005 and all the baby sites I was on would show the dates of important events, and one of them was “Start Kindergarten: 2011.” I thought that was so far away, and here was are, 5 years later!
This weekend we had the remnants of Hurricane Irene blow through our area, and it knocked power out on Saturday/Sunday at 4 a.m. We went to Hagerstown yesterday for Pappy’s 80th birthday party (more on THAT in a minute…..), which helped ease some of the “no power” discomfort and inconvenience, and the power finally came back on at 4 a.m. this morning!
WHEW!
I was seriously not in the “start school tomorrow” frame of mind last night! Kwabena fell asleep in the car on the way home from Hagerstown, but even if he hadn’t, there were no bathes last night, no “wow, tomorrow is school!” prep talks or anything. The whole focus was on how there was no power.
In fact, when we came home last night, Kwasi was utilitizing the “there’s nothing to do” syndrome and actually got the yard work (mowing and clean-up) done, while Ohene and I helped. Kwabena slept. Kwasi misplaced the flashlight so we had to do candles last night, while Ohene played in bed with a smaller little flashlight.
So thankfully, power restored! (Makes me motivated to have more preparation packs of stuff in the garage for the next power outage!)
Anyhow, I woke at 5 a.m. to find that the lights were ON (yay!!!), and got up to do some cleaning, and ironing, and packing lunch and stuff. And Ohene (who woke up about 6 a.m.-ish), and I woke Kwabena up at 6:30 a.m. He soooo was not ready to get up! 🙂 Anyhow, he got up, took a bath, got dressed, all without complaint or fussing at him! 🙂 And then I had breakfast ready for him and he ate while I showered. We were out of the house, on to the bus stop by 8:05 a.m., unsure of what time the bus actually came.
So I walked Kwabena to the bus stop and waited with him. The bus came at 8:23 a.m. When it pulled up, he ran to the bus and I had to slow him down to at least hug me goodbye. LOL I ran back to my car parked at the house, and miraculously was able to find the bus and get behind it.
At the school, I wanted Kwabena to see me as he got off the bus! Thankfully, I was right there as he got off the bus! They marched the three Kindgergarten classes over to the fenced in area of a playground, and let the parents stand on the outside and take pictures and videos while they rounded up their class and took attendance and stuff. I actually felt like I was a visitor at the zoo, taking pics of the animals. HAHAHA Hilarious 🙂 Then they marched into their classrooms and got their day started. I can’t wait to find out how it went today!!
Kwasi, on the other hand, is being a big jerk. This morning he was complaining about how we were going to navigate our mornings, like how he was going to get Ohene to daycare and Kwabena to the bus stop. I told him today was a special circumstance because it’s the first day. (He then criticized for me wanting to go into work late so that I could see Kwabena off for his first day). I said that we will create a schedule that works for everyone once we settle into the routine. Anyhow, he seems to think that Kwabena can walk through the neighborhood to and from the bus stop on his own, and that he should be able to leave Kwabena ALONE in the house in the morning if he needs to take Ohene to daycare first or something before Kwabena’s bus comes. WTH!!! I am feeling like I can’t trust him now to make adult parenting decisions, ones that concern safety issues. You just don’t leave a 5 year old in a house, alone, for 30 minutes, just because it’s an incovenience to YOU.
So anyhow, because Kwasi had to work (and because it wasn’t really that important to him to see Kwabena off to school), he took Ohene to daycare. On the walk to school, Kwabena commented how Daddy was busy with work, and that “It’s not that Daddy doesn’t want to come, he is just too busy with conference calls. He’s too busy for me.” I told Kwabena, “Well, Mommy will NEVER be too busy for you.”Regardless that he stated it so matter of factly, still bothered me that Kwasi hadn’t made more effort and had more desire to be there. He was even bitching having to attend the Open House last Friday because he had “already gone to the parents meeting” the previous night, and because he had “work issues.” Anyhow, he did go to the Open House after my complaining, and I’m glad he at least came to see Kwabena’s class room and stuff.
I’m finding out Kwasi is notorious for making bad parenting decisions. He pulled this shit in Ghana, I later found out, when Kwabena didn’t want to strap himself in the car (I had spent $120 for a travel safety vest, which they barely used). Just because Kwabena would insist upon not using his seatbelt, and because Kwabena wasn’t listening when Kwasi told him to buckle up, he just let Kwabena ride, UNBELTED, in the frickin’ car. Are you serious?? Beat his ass and MAKE him buckle in. You’re the parent! Don’t let him make his own decision about shit that are safety issues.
Anyhow, that’s a whole other issue……let’s keep the focus on my little guy starting Kindergarten! Yay for you, Kwabena! This is the first day of the rest of your schooling years! 🙂
So yesterday was Pappy’s 80th birthday party that Mom had organized. We got there around noon and was able to surprise him. Can I say that Kwabena’s behavior yesterday at my grandfather’s 80th birthday party was horrendous??? Seriously, can this kid get any more energy than he already has?? He’s very outgoing with other kids, and doesn’t seem to respect that other kids may be shy and not warm up as quickly as he does. He’s running over tickling my cousin’s (Danielle) very shy 6-year old, Nathan, while the kid is shyly moving AWAY from Kwabena…..
And going up to people and beating his chest like he’s an ape, wanting them to look at him… and just NOT listening when I tell him to come here or whatever. Bee was watching him while I took Ohene to the car to change his diaper, and Trey had to call me back in because Kwabena was misbehaving, snatcing things away from people without as much of a “thank you” or anything! And when I came in, he was in the bathroom crying, and Bee was like, “Serena, come and get this boy!” and later told me, “Oh, Serena, he’s BAD!” Umm……And my mom says that when she saw his first day of school picture today, Dennis the Menance came to mind. OH NO!!!!!
I can only hope that his behavior will settle down once things get settled with the new chapter called “School” and once the baby comes and that settles down…..Mom also had some good ideas about positive reinforcements instead of bitching to him all the time. I’ll talk more about that later!
Off to lunch!
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