Week 291: Kindergarten, Batman, and Barbie

The big news this week is that Sam started kindergarten, thus initiating her long years of toil in one educational system or another. Being the fearless person she is, though, Sam was extremely excited about this event, though the most important thing to her seemed to be letting her ride the bus. Which she did later in the week. I happened to be home one morning when the bus came, and let me tell you it is a decidedly odd feeling to place your child on a vehicle and then stand at the curb while it drives away with her in it and you not in it. Would she come back? (Spoiler: yes, she did.)

Now each night at dinner we are regaled with stories about what she did each day and what she learned and what the RULES were for any given activity. On the flip side, it only took ONE day at preschool before Sam started to complain that the sippy cup we had sent with her snack was met with tittering laughter from the other children, and that it would simply not do. So the next day Geralyn sent Sam’s liquid refreshment sloshing around in a Batman squeeze bottle which seemed to excite Sam in the morning, but that night she was back to complaining that according to one of her tablemates Batman was “stupid.” I flew off the handle a bit at this, explaining that Batman was in fact five different kinds of badass, and could take down this little naysayer and crush his windpipe with barely any effort. The next morning Sam’s backpack included a drink in a plain white squeeze bottle adorned only with my employer’s logo. This apparently meets with everyone’s satisfaction, which is good because the next option was an old coffee mug that says “Working for the Weekend.”

Sam’s exploration of gender norms has also taken an ugly right turn at the school library, as evidenced by her selection of Barbie and the Diamond Castle, which has the honor of being THE stupidest thing I have ever read. Really, it’s aggressively, horribly dumb –not only for the whole Barbie princess thing, but because the story is utterly nonsensical. As far as I can tell it was written by some raving lunatic draped in a pink and lavender straight jacket. Here’s two girls! They find a magic rock! There’s a dragon and an evil witch! And a magic mirror! And here are some cute boys! Tee hee hee! Ugh. I felt compelled to criticize the book on account of its banality, but Sam took this as an affront to her personal tastes and I had to suffer through it. Fortunately the book was due back after a week and we moved on to The Wizard of Oz, which BOTH of us are enjoying much more.

On the Mandy front, she starts her pre-pre-preschool program next week, a fact she jumps to call attention to whenever anyone comments about Sam’s going to school. Being a lot like her sister when it comes to embracing new situations, I’m sure she’ll do fine, though, and Geralyn will suddenly find herself with a few hours a couple of days a week in which she will simply have to think about doing mommy stuff instead of actually doing it.

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4 thoughts on “Week 291: Kindergarten, Batman, and Barbie

  1. Yeah for kindergarten!
    I must ask, for what activity is Mandy dressed in the knee pads and helmet. She looks like she cannot walk let alone engage in physical activity. Oh the days when we went shooting out of our hilltop driveway across the street and crashed headfirst into the neighbors brick wall in our red wagon!

  2. Nothing much. She just wanted to put on all the pads and the helmet, then she went outside and stood still on the deck.

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