I registered Zoe for kindergarten yesterday. Sniff. I didn’t think I would be emotional about it, since I just registered Noah for kindergarten last year, but I was. It’s weird to think that we will be sending our SECOND child to elementary school in the fall.
(Maybe the problem is that it is not FREE kindergarten, even though it’s public school. Maybe it would have been a little easier to swallow that my little girl was growing up if we were getting the benefit of dumping a monthly school bill at the same time. It will be cheaper than her preschool bill, but full-day kindergarten costs $2,300 in our district, so there’s not much comfort in that. But I digress…)
After registration we took a school tour. We got to see Noah in his kindergarten class, which she thought was pretty cool. We saw the music and art rooms, the library, the gymnasium, the stage, the cafeteria, etc. I think she would have been happy to just stay there then instead of waiting for August.
Noah and Colin both had school yesterday, but Zoe’s school was closed for conferences. I had the day off, so it was just the girls after registration.
She’s always excited to “go to a restaurant.” If given the choice, we would always eat at the local hibachi place. If that’s not an option, because Mommy says it is too expen$ive, she really has no preference. She just wants to go out to eat. Zoe’s preschool has more days off than Noah or Colin’s school, so she gets to go to restaurants for lunch more often than the boys. This has caused a little bit of friction, so I told her not to brag about it when Noah got home. She didn’t, but I almost think she intentionally left her kid’s cup of pink lemonade in the fridge so he would find it. He saw it immediately after he got home from school and said, “Hey! Where did you guys go this time?!” in his best “that’s-not-fair” voice.
After lunch we ran a few errands. We went to Babies R Us to buy her some of the 2T-3T socks she likes. (Yes, she is five, and she wears 2T-3T socks from the baby store!)She is VERY particular about her socks. They have to fit a certain way or she complains about them incessantly (unless they have Hello Kitty on them, and then she doesn’t really care how they fit. It’s too bad Hello Kitty socks don’t come in a larger variety of colors.).
Then we went to the mall so she could pick out a birthday gift for Noah that will be from Colin and her. We also visited the hair kiosk to have her feathers moved up a little and to look at headbands. The woman working at the kiosk was from China, as was the man at the cell phone accessory kiosk right next to her. They both talked about how Zoe looks Chinese and not Vietnamese. She said, “Chinese people tell me that all the time.” (It’s true. They do.)
Did anyone catch that I just said my little darling wanted to look at headbands? Yes, it is true. She is starting to become more interested in girly accessories. And dresses. She’s always liked to wear dresses in the summer (with shorts or bloomers on underneath at my insistence!), but in the winter she’s been a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl, and that was just fine with me. It was so easy! I bought her five pairs of ruffle flair jeans from the Children’s Place (with the waists adjusted in ALL the way, of course) and some cute shirts every year, and she was good to go. Then a couple of weeks ago she said, “Mommy, Kelley wears skirts and dresses to school every day. Can I wear skirts and dresses?”
Le sigh. I’ve had a major education in little girls’ fashion over the last two weeks. Matching a shirt, leggings, skirt, socks, boots, etc is much more complicated than t-shirts and jeans! At least she picked a good time of year to make this decision. I found lots of cute stuff on clearance at Target, including skirts for $2.50! And, since she grows so slowly, this stuff will probably fit her for the next two years (even though the skirts I had to buy to fit her are 24 Months or 3T)!
Still, I was not entirely convinced she was really going to do this. Remember, this is the girl who routinely sucks her thumb and picks her nose at the same time. A girly girl she is not. I only took the tags off of two outfits so she could give it a trial run. She made it through though, and has asked to wear a dress or skirt every day since. She usually takes the leggings and/or skirt off when she gets home from school, especially the fluffy tutu skirts, but she usually took her jeans off when she got home from school before, too.
She looks adorable, but she has not been feeling very photogenic. I have tried several times to take pictures of her in her new attire with no luck. I got this one this morning. With the expression on her face, it looks more like a mug shot than a photo of my darling little princess.
At least I can always count on Colin for a good photo (or at least a crappy cell phone pic (I REALLY REALLY REALLY need a new cell phone. Mine takes exceptionally crappy pics)). Colin saw me trying to get Zoe to smile and said, “Take my picture, Mommy!”
(She’s said she’s going to marry Noah, and seemed disappointed that we told her she couldn’t.)
