First Day of School

Today was Rebecca's first day of kindergarten. Jen and I were extremely anxious about this day for a long time. We kept discussing it with Rebecca, and each other - probably a little too much. It had been very hard to imagine our little baby actually going to elementary school...a school where there were 5th graders, and lockers, and a gym, and a cafeteria. It all seemed so grown up.

Thankfully, we live close enough to the school that we are "walkers", so Rebecca didn't have to get on a bus. So Jen and I both walked her (I was home from work because I had taken the whole week off for this event), each of us holding one of her little hands. All the while, I was trying to snap as many pictures as possible to record this day. Then we got to the school (pictured to the right) and headed to the gym. There we met Rebecca's new teacher and all of her new classmates. After a few minutes, the teacher asked the new class to line up so that they could walk in an orderly fashion to their new classroom and away from their parents that were doing their best paparazzi imitations (there were flash bulbs going off every few seconds).

Jen and I really tried to keep it together as the kids lined up and waved good-bye to their parents. Rebecca got into line, right behind a little girl she knows from our block - the only kid she knows in the class - the rest are all strangers to her. She just stood there, waving at us and smiling, with her brand new pink backpack that seemed to be bigger than she is. Yes...she was smiling and waving. What a relief. The only tears were from us, the two sappy parents. Rebecca was totally fine - our brave little girl.

Baseball

I recently took Rebecca to a Bridgeport Bluefish game. The Bluefish play in the independent league, roughly equivalent to Division A of the minor league system. Interestingly, Tommy John is the manager of the Bluefish.

Anyway, Rebecca had a great time. And she even lasted 6 innings, which was much more than I expected. But it wasn't the game that kept her interest. Fortunately, the people who run Harbor Yard know that keeping kids' attention during a baseball game is not very easy, so they've devised a number of tricks to keep the young ones entertained during the game. Rebecca was probably most impressed with Jake the Water Dog, who carried a basket of water bottles around the infield for the umpires between innings. And then she loved it when Jake showed off his athletic prowess by catching well-thrown frisbees in the outfield after the 5th inning.

She also liked the Bluefish mascot who came around to the different parts of the stadium and did very goofy tricks for the kids. And of course, the clown making balloon animals was a big hit (you can see her balloon poodle in the picture-->).

And for the first time, Rebecca ate peanuts right out of the shell. It took her a few minutes to get the hang of cracking open the shell, but she managed to put down the entire bag once she got going.

During all this excitement, there was actually an exciting baseball game going on. The score was 4 to 3 when we left. I'm still not sure who won, but all I know is we had a great time. Once Joshua gets old enough, you can be sure I'll take him. Looking forward to that.

NYTimes Article

Great Article in the NYTimes today about a Dad inventor.....

My Dad, American Inventor

Published: August 16, 2007
TOMMY HABEEB just wanted to be one of the new breed of involved dads: the hands-on guys who preside over bath time without creating a flood; the ones who return home from work early enough to crawl after their children toward the realm of make-believe. His ambitions did not include inventing the Water Bottle Nipple Adaptor.

Inspiration struck Mr. Habeeb on a sweltering afternoon in Dallas, though, when he found himself with a cold bottle of water and no way for the baby slung across his chest to drink from it. In short order, he was in his kitchen hacksawing off the top of a baby bottle and improvising a coupling to allow the nipple to be screwed onto almost any water bottle.

Click here for the full text.

Dance Camp

Since camp ended last week, we wanted to find something fun and exciting for Rebecca to do rather than arrange play dates every day. So we signed her up for one week of Dance Camp, which goes from 9:30-1:30 for four straight days. It includes an emphasis on dancing (which Rebecca loves) with some games and art projects mixed in. Rebecca had taken a dance class at this school before, but Jen and I were very anxious about leaving her there for the whole day. She only knew one other girl in the group, and one teacher. The rest were strangers to her.

Would she cry when we left her there for the day? Would she be shy and anxious about not knowing anyone? Would this whole Dance Camp thing be a wasted effort for us? Would Rebecca just be better off spending the days with her mom and brother???? The questions abounded in our minds.

Turns out we worried for nothing. Rebecca, on her first day, went off into the group and started mixing it up right away. She said good-bye to Jen with no issues, and no crying! She has, so far, truly embraced Dance Camp, and seems to really love it. At night she talks excitedly about her day in anticipation of the next one. What a relief.

It's funny how, as parents, we often find ourselves in the role of student as our young kids continually teach us new things. We are so proud of Rebecca as she asserts her independence and shows us what she's made of - all good stuff.

Next challenge - Kindergarten, which starts in just a few short weeks.