Today was kindergarten assessment day for Brandon. I got to take him down to our local elementary school to meet his teacher and see his classroom. There were 8 students per each hour and a half block, so we did a lot of waiting in the library. Brandon vacillated between the dinosaur books, and the cutting and coloring table. At least there were things to keep him entertained. Caitlin, on the other hand, was entertained for approximately 11 minutes. After that she whined, talked, took many, many books off the shelves, and jumped on the chairs. The librarian was on kid-duty, as were a couple of pre-teen girls and a few moms. I was able to leave Brandon there and walk around upstairs. The library in the school is in the middle, and sunken, so we walked the main the circle of the school, but at all times could see Brandon through the windows that look down in to the main part of the library. That was nice.
Brandon's new school is very nice. It's K-5th grade, and not too large. It's far nicer than anything he would have gone to back in California. It's only about 11 years old. I think it's sort of a Midwestern thing, and the fact that most of the town we live in was developed about 15 years ago, so things are much newer as a result. Our neighborhood was built in 1994. Brandon's school is also an indoor school, due to our weather, which make it seem nicer, too. I only went to one indoor school in my life, back in 5th grade when we briefly lived in the Sierras, and I liked it soooo much better than all the outdoor schools I went to. It was so nice to not have to put on my coat and drag all my stuff around during inclement weather.
After Brandon's assessment was done, we were herded out through the cafeteria and on to a playground. I was greeted by a wave of overly tanned, overly buffed moms talking with each other, or playing with their kids. I swear, I was the fattest, whitest person on the playground! And I'm tan right now! Since we moved here I have been inundated with the fact that people in Colorado are very healthy and spend a lot of time outside. The healthy part is obvious - the population is far thinner here than anywhere else I've live (or even ever been). However, being from the bay area in California, I haven't noticed the outside part as much as I feel I should. There were far more people outside in our old neighborhood in California. And, they were out pretty much year round. The mass amounts of cyclists here, while amazingly annoying, are not
nearly as annoying as the traffic-stopping cyclists I use to encounter daily on my way to work (still irritating, but not as much. The urge to run over those riding 3 or 4 abreast on the roads at 15 miles per hour has decreased). I've chalked that up to a denser population there, and better weather. These moms, though, fit the healthy, outdoorsy descriptions. These moms reminded me of the kind of people I use to run into when I went to pick up the coffee cambros for our
old church. Palo Alto was overrun with overly tan, overly buffed women with color-streaked hair who jogged in the morning, ran home for a shower, and then showed up at Peet's Coffee, practically drip-drying in their designer sweats. I'm not sure what the moms here do. Maybe it's skiing. Or cycling. I'm out walking early in the mornings, and haven't noticed a lot of joggers. Maybe I'm in the wrong neighborhood. All I know is that they don't dress well, and look much older than their actual years. Maybe it's all that sun.
We played for a while, until the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and threatened to burn us to a crisp (the sun is more intense at 5,400 feet!). The kids wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A, and I was pretty burned out from playing single parent this week while Brian's gone, so I agreed with their "great idea" (as they say when presenting something to me). While there I ran into an overly tanned, but not overly buffed woman and another women who looked more normal than the other mom, and they invited me to join up with a local moms group. I've looked it up online, and I think I'll call them next week. I have a few friends here, but they aren't close by. I'd really like to meet some people who live close by. I miss living next door to my friend Chris, and Brandon misses playing with Emily. It would be nice to know people who have kids the same age as mine, who don't have exercise as their only hobby, and that I may have something in common with. But really, at this point any real friends would be nice.
Today was Brandon's first day of kindergarten. My baby boy! I guess I'll need to drop the "baby" part from that last phrase, now that my boy's a big kindergartner. I'm still wrapping my mind around the fact that Brandon's almost 5, and now in kindergarten.
#1 - Selfishly, because it means that I still get to keep my morning mom activities, like a weekly bible study and MOPS. I'll have to leave everything early in order to get him to school, but at least I still get to go. The morning class is from 7:55 to 10:45 am. Besides grocery shopping, there is nothing I could do during that time frame at all. Most stores don't even open until 10:00 or 10:30 around here. Even Costco would be a challenge.
I'm excited about the school. I've heard that they are very academically focused. How that translates in kindergarten, and how they do that in less than 3 hours per day, I don't know. Brandon is trying so hard to read, so that will be a good measure of achievement for me. But he's excited, and wants to learn. I'm glad. And, quite honestly, I'm ready for him to be at school 3 hours a day. More time for me, and Caitlin.
