That's all, folks

Well, here it is. The last day of school is tomorrow. As opposed to the night I sat here to write my first Baxtergarten entry, when the backpack was packed and lunch was made, new clothes were laid out, and we weren't sure how we would ever get Baxter out the door in time for school, tonight is a totally different scene. Here I am, in the same chair at the same desk, watching the N-Judah make its way by, but this time there is still a little streak of orange in the night sky out there over the ocean. That crisp fall anticipation is long gone, and in its place is a sense of endings and long hot days ahead in another city.

The backpack is still hanging on the same door knob, but it's empty. I have not made the lunch yet, although I did get his request for a "last day" lunch. The house is a mess; we are preparing to move and Matt's on a business trip, so I'm far behind schedule tonight.

What I can get credit for this evening are the bright green cards with new home and email addresses printed out for Baxter to give to all of his friends tomorrow. I made them on the computer and carefully glued them to the cards so that the kids wouldn't lose them immediately. He so dearly hopes to get an email from his new love, Olivia.

I will be going in to school at snack time with cupcakes and these little cards for everyone. This will be Baxter's "good-bye" party at school, and he is very excited about it.

Their student teacher will be there tomorrow; his classroom teacher celebrated her last day with the kids today since she has a son graduating during the day tomorrow. When I tried to say good-bye and to thank her for all that she has done for Baxter this year, I only ended up crying. Thanfully, I had also said it all in the card I wrote for her last night.

It's a pretty amazing journey, this kindergarten thing. I do imagine most years of school will seem like that in one way or another but I am guessing that, this being his very first year of school, it made us pay that much more attention to each little step of the adventure.

Thanks to those of you who have been reading this from time to time, and who noticed when weeks went by between entries. Your encouragement helped when things were slow. There was never a lack of material, of course, it was simply that at times we were moving too fast to think about what was happening and how we were feeling about it. I can say with certainty that everything important I learned about life I did NOT learn in kindergarten. However, it is a very exciting and important year, even when experienced through one's child. Thanks for coming along on the ride.

We won't be chronicling next year in this way. However, you can track our progress in Chicago, which I'm sure will include thoughts on the new school, at: http://showmeanothercity.blogspot.com.

Purple?! Yuck!

I recently wrote about the fact that Baxter will still put on a ballerina dress and dance around a maypole with a girl, and wondered aloud when this would no longer seem cool.

Well, that time is here.

"Eeewww, purple!" he squeals when his little brother colors with a purple marker. "I HATE pink and purple. Those are girl colors!" I have pointed out in pictures how kings are often wearing purple because it's traditionally a royal, strong color. He was very interested in this, and later I noticed that he chose a purple crayon. "What about pink, Mommy?" he asked and I had very little to commend it that would impress him, other than the fact that it occurs in nature. ("Umm, well, it makes for a great lipstick shade!" was about the only other thing I could think of. I didn't figure this would help the plight of poor pink.)

He recently spotted the photo of himself in the Cinderella dress with Lucy, and for the first time was not fully enthusiastic about it. "Eew, a princess!" he said under his breath with some embarrassment.

I know this is inevitable and normal. I figure my job is simply to make sure that he always knows he can make his own choices and have his own opinions, and they don't have to be the same as all the other little boys at school. I suggested to him that he listen to what other people say, think about whether he agrees or disagrees, and then state his own opinion if he wants. As an easy example, I said, "What if everyone at school said that cheese was really, really disgusting and no one should eat it?" "Well, that's easy, I love cheese! Cheese is great!" "So would you stop eating cheese?" "No way!!" I told him that this was a conversation we'd be having a lot as he is growing up. Maybe not always about cheese, but I think he got that.

But what I am more sad about, and I think I will have a much harder time with, is that he is nearing that age when many boys stop playing with girls. Most of Baxter's best friends have been girls, and he can do his favorite kind of playing with them (imaginative, role-playing games). I saw the split happening a few months ago, and I credit Baxter with bringing the boys and girls together at recess by inventing a role-playing game that involved super-heroes. The boys wanted to play for the super-hero aspect, and the girls wanted to play because they could create families and drama - so there are Devil Super Cheetahs out there at every recess this week, searching for lost babies, and everyone has found their niche. The characters seem to change every week or two which keeps everyone involved.

Similar to looking at that photo of him in the princess gown a few months ago, I am watching all of these enthusiastic children playing together and wondering just how much longer that will last.

Two People

Baxter and I were reading together when he began asking how many people live on earth. "Are there more than a hundred?" (100 is the be-all, end-all of numbers to him.)

"Yes! There are 6 billion people", Matt told him from the other room. (Yes, this is because I had no idea of the answer, I'll admit this. Well, wait, I knew there were more than 100, but once we get into the billions, that's about all I feel I need to know.)

He was silent and looked somewhat perplexed.

"It's a huge number, isn't it? Bigger than we can even imagine, really," I said.

After a minute he said, "I can only imagine two people, actually."

"Oh, really?" I was not sure what he meant by that.

"Yeah. Me and Ella."

Shadow Boy Emerges

Many of you have asked, "Does Lyle have a superhero name?" Why, yes, so glad you asked!

Although originally known as "Cheetah Baby", Lyle has been dubbed "Shadow Boy" due to his impressive ability to scare away the ever-petrifying dark shadows that exist for him under every damn piece of furniture, tree, and doorway. When the whimpering begins, we merely say, "Use your super powers, Shadow Boy!" and he squats down so he's face to face with the enemy, puts out his dimply little hands, and says "Pshew pshew!" He then gets up and toddles away to new adventures.

Damn! That Cheetah Boy Can Read!

We were chatting with Baxter on Friday night about his day. We knew his class gets together with their 3rd grade "reading buddies" on Fridays. The point of this is to give the big kids a chance to practice their reading and for the younger kids to be inspired to start reading themselves. Baxter happens to have two buddies because a child in his class moved so there was a "left over" 3rd grader. It's clear that he really likes these two big boys. I've been curious about how this has been going lately, because he himself is actually reading 3rd grade level books.

So Baxter told me what they had read to him that day, and I asked him, "Do they know that you can read, too?" "I don't know," he mused. Then I asked, "Well, do you ever read to them, or do they just read to you?" He said, "They read to me. I never read to them."

Then he paused and said, "But if they have trouble with a word, I help them out."

Enter Cheetah Boy

The world's newest superhero is born.

And he's packing an impressive array of powers:

• fastest land animal (50% as fast as Superman)
• turns things invisible with lightning bolts that shoot from his hands
• shoots fire from his hands
• raises defensive shields against others' attacks
• fires lasers from his eyes (effect unknown)

I took Baxter to Free Comic Book day a few Saturdays ago, and the rest, as they say, is history. He swallowed the Justice League whole and used it as a launching pad for his science-fueled imagination. He even asked a friend of ours, a Biology professor, to settle our dispute about whether Superman counts as a mammal or not.

We're rolling with the whole thing pretty well. The only limit we've put on it so far is that there's to be no destructive shooting in the house. He can make all the noise and go through all the motions, but he can't pretend to be killing us. He seems okay with that. Lyle even uses his own "superpowers" to banish the shadows that lurk under the doors and couches.

We've even adopted our own Super alter egos: Jordan is Inhaler Girl and I'm Sleepatron.

Credit

I can give Matt some credit here. In fact, I am the best credit-giver in my class. No one can give credit like I can (when it is due).

This morning, in a pre-emptive strike against a hissy fit about putting down his book to take an inhaler, Matt brilliantly suggested, "Why don't you come over here and show me how you can take your inhaler better and faster than anyone else in room 104?" Never have we seen such speed in the approach to take some medicine. Nice.