Danerane at 6

I was just scrolling through my phone to get pictures for this post, and could only find about 1/3 as many of Dane as I had for Graham and Lucy. That's what happens when you go to school for seven (SEVEN) hours a day for kindergarten! (That's my biggest complaint about school--I have so little time with him now.) And here's how much I can find out about what goes on in those seven-hour days: nothing. Literally, nothing. He will maybe drop a little tidbit here or there about this friend has a jacket with a rainbow zipper, or they had Spanish for their special today, but that's about it. I really thrashed about with this for a while before realizing this is a normal thing for parents to not feel connected to what their kids are doing at school each day and I have to just let it go. I can't force him to tell me things. Just today I asked, "Hey! What was the best thing that happened at school today?" And he sat there and said, "Ummmmm..." for about five minutes. I said, "Okay, what's a good thing that happened at school today?" And he sat there and said "Ummmmm... for another five minutes." So I gave up.

The only thing I know about his days of kindergarten is that he loves it. He never has anything to complain about--except when they have indoor recess when it's raining outside. He loves his teacher, loves his friends at school, loves his Spanish and art classes (not so much the music, but hopefully it'll grow on him) and PE, loves reading with the first graders next door, loves it all. I am so grateful his school experience has been so positive so far. We are super happy with his school and really proud of him for everything he's doing and learning. He's always coming home with notes from his friends (one of their "literacy centers" is to write a note to someone) that say, "Dear Dane, I love you." These are the things that make me LOVE kindergarten. I hate that they have to grow up.

Dane is super competitive, super confident, and super sure he's super strong and super fast. He really likes his taekwondo that we signed him back up for after taking the last eight months off, and it feels much more manageable for us now than it did before. 

His latest craze is paper airplanes. My mom gave him this paper airplanes book for Christmas, and he and his friend Ben spent five hours straight over MLK day just making thirty paper airplanes out of the book. 

Look, he even made a huge paper airplane out of a poster at the Texas Legends game we went to, haha. 

We went to Dane's school to read to his class, and Lucy was SUCH a hit. I loved getting a tiny glimpse into his classroom and his friends.

He was so excited about reading and watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

He came home from school on Tuesday and had pulled out another tooth at school! He was soooo proud of himself. 

Wednesday was the 100th day of school and he had to dress up as an old man. This was the best we could do. (I'm not a fan of these dress-up days... they're just an invention to torture parents. But he did look really cute and he was really really excited.)

Dane is a really good big brother. He's always looking out for Graham and Lucy and trying to be nice to them. We've talked a lot about being kind this year and I feel like it's starting to show some dividends--they love to point out "kind deeds" they've done, and Dane is really good about being kind to Graham and Lucy. He will blast through a chapter book in half an hour or so--his reading has taken off like a storm. I think he can move up to a little more complicated chapter books, but there's no rush. He also loves his math at school--he'll always make up these complicated addition and subtraction equations that he's trying to do on his own. 

He is a good hard worker--he loves to help us with our chores on Saturdays, and sometimes loves to do his own, haha. He really is a huge help to me; it's always so nice when he gets home because he immediately starts entertaining Graham and Lucy and does a great job at setting the table and putting away his lunchbox. It's been an interesting balance to get used to him being in school and trying to figure out how to let him play when he gets home, but also read, and do chores, and have family time, and read our chapter books to him, and still make and eat dinner and anything else he has to do (like taekwondo). I've figured out you can't feel like you have to do them all every day; just try to fit them in over the course of the week. 

I have been worrying lately about being too tough on Dane. Maybe that's a normal problem for the oldest child. I am trying to be more fun with them, and to be better about implementing positive motivators instead of punishments. We have struggled with getting ready for school on time (because school STARTS at 7:45 here!) and with me being overly stressed and grumpy about him not being ready. (I fully own this is my problem and not his... I hate, hate, hate being late, especially to school which is so nasty about being on time.) But we've given him a reward chart to motivate him to get ready faster instead of playing for 15 minutes in the bathroom with a washcloth, and it's been working so much better. I haven't been mad any mornings this week. Yes! I feel so much better as a mom, and I think it's helped my whole day go more smoothly.

I love this boy so much. He is still my little boy at heart--he gives me these big hugs all the time and will randomly come up and say, "I love you." He loves our good-night ritual where I give him a long hug and tell him something I loved that he did that day. He is pretty intuitive when I'm struggling about something and will say, "I think you're tired, Mom, is that right?" (Haha!) I am going to be so sad when he's too cool to have me walk him to the door at school any more, and when he won't want to hold my hand walking across the playground. He is so big, and yet still so little for just a while longer.