first weeks of school

Rad cracks me up on the daily (over the weekend at Costco: " hey why dey say you have your hands full?! You just pushing the cart mom!") and I'm constantly surprised by the mature side of Rhett when I find him entertaining Beck or reading a book to Rad. They cause me to stress eat a lot of semi-sweets but they're good little eggs to have around most of the time. However! I have to admit that after I drop them off at 1st grade and preschool I may just dance-walk away to the tune of freedom even with Beck still sitting in the car seat.

God bless glorified and highly educational daycare. I really couldn't do it without you.

Behold the newest first graders among the thousands that flooded their respective schools this month. Everett and Rhett have different teachers this year but still manage to spend all other waking hours of the day together. The picture on the left is from last year, the evening before Kindergarten and the one on the right from right before this school year...all of those middle of the night growing pains paid off.

The third week of school Rhett was the star student and got share exciting tidbits about himself with the class. I love this tradition, I'm sure teachers hear some of the most delightful lines from the youngsters. (Like the email I got from his teacher last year mentioning that Rhett had asked her why dad calls mom babe when mom doesn't wear diapers...) Because you know that nothing is more more interesting to a six year old then themselves. Nothing.

Because Rhett has never lacked for confidence (I hope to be more like him when I grow up) he was so exited share his poster and talents each day.

For my memory bank, from Rhett's star student week:

Favorite place to go: Sea World and the beach
Favorite animal: Mountain Lion
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite thing to do: Go to Chick fil a with my friends Everett and Breckie and practice my tricks
When I grow up I want to be: A solider
If I had one wish, I would wish for: A robot monkey
And the talent shared: His ninja moves. Obviously.

And let's talk about Rad....in preschool! I didn't really do a great job prepping him for the big day, it was more of a wake up and "yay it's time for preschool!!" But the milestone day arrived and it was miles better than expected once Rad understood he got to take Rhett's old R2D2 backpack with him... because we all know how Rad feels about anything that can further enable his hoarding (treasure) habit. When prepping his backpack one morning I found it stuffed full of all of his collection of bouncy balls, Rhett's dirty socks and part of my chapstick collection. The most prepared preschooler award goes to Rad Aaron Miller.

He hearts preschool to the max. I half expected the stereotypical knee clinging/sobbing/dramatic goodbye from him, but nope he's good to jump out the van and run in solo, so next time I think I'll just stay in bed because clearly he is ready for his first cubicle in the workforce. When asked, his favorite part of preschool is "me!" (himself) and so long as he loves going we'll indulge his little narcissistic heart.

Beck is king of the castle for about 10 hours of the week as spends a good part of that time carrying a glorified backpack/tote around while waving. He also really likes to put random treasures in his bag (monkey see, monkey do) and when we're missing the lint roller, there's a good chance that it's in the bag. He's starting to talk monosyllabic shouts and now that Rhett's gone all day, I can see the beginnings of a beautiful friendship forming between him and Rad. No, that's a stretch - Rad still barely acknowledges Beck's existence, but I know they'll buddy up. At least, that's my hope.

So now that I have just Beck at home all day, every day I am feeling p-r-e-t-t-y footloose and fancy-free. And more importantly the boys are learning, thriving and are beyond thrilled with the mini art show of their projects that are on our fridge. Winning for everyone.