Losing My Cool

So, Q’s only five and it’s happening already, I’m not that cool anymore. I thought I had at least until he was about 9ish, but I guess the start of elementary school has a lot to do with it. He’s realizing there are a lot more options out there than the ones I put in front of him. Up until now, I got to pick out his wardrobe. There aren’t a lot of options for boys clothing most involve hokey trucks or sports equipment, but I was able to get to this point without putting him in cooky toddler boy gear. He ended up in a lot stripes and plaid, but I’ll take the lack of variety over monster truck shirts that say vroom vroom any day.
Q and I were shopping a couple of weeks ago and he asked if he could buy a shirt. I showed him a couple of cute options and was told “those shirts aren’t very cool mommy, I wanted to buy a cool shirt.” So in the middle of Nordstrom Rack we had a blank stare stare down for a good thirty seconds. I was speechless, staring at him thinking my five year old is already looking at me like I have no clue. And he was speechless, staring at me. I have no doubt that his thoughts were somewhere along the lines of my mom has no idea what cool is.
Later on that day, he also found some star wars light up shoes. I’m not a fan. I just wanted him to get some black slip on vans, so I told him the lights are probably a little too distracting to wear in class. It kills me that the five year old that thinks the star wars light up shoes are the way to go is the kid that thinks I’m not cool. After some thinking, I caved, I’m getting him the star wars shoes for Christmas. Cookey wardrobe decisions aren’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still painful to witness. And the real bummer is knowing that this is just the beginning. He’s starting to make his own decisions, some I will approve of and some I will not. I’m working on being grateful that he still shops with me.

First Man Tooth

The last two weeks have been big weeks for Q. Well really, he’s done a lot of growing up since he started kindergarten in September. In just a couple of months he’s a completely different kid, he is definitely a bona fide big kid now. So last week was Q’s first parent teacher conference which went so well, I teared up hearing just how well he’s doing in class. Academically he’s ahead of where he needs to be, and as expected, the one thing he could improve on is participation. His teacher is working on getting him to participate more in classroom discussions, but she did mention that he’s starting to show glimmers of confidence in the classroom.
So not only is Q growing up emotionally, but physically too. His first man tooth has sprouted up, I teared up as soon as I saw it. His man tooth was coming up behind the baby tooth which wasn’t loose yet so went to the dentist to check it out. Of course he was terrified of the dentist, but a little bubble gum scented laughing gas with a tv to watch Toy Story and everything went smoothly. The dentist ended up pulling both of his bottom teeth since the man tooth next to his first one is about to come up too. They handed me his first baby teeth in little treasure boxes and I teared up again. Q and I went home and had some fun in the mirror while he had his first experience with numbness. Just like baby’s that look completely different when they go from a toothless, gummy smile to a smile with a couple of teeth, Q with a couple of missing baby teeth now looks completely grown up. And yes, I’m tearing up again typing this…..

Advent Season

I've been wanted to do an Advent Calendar for Q and just recently found a great idea on this blog. http://www.chicaandjo.com/2010/11/10/grinch-advent-calendar/. I used an over the door shoe organizer which is perfect because they have 24 slots and decorated each slot with Christmas scrapbook paper. Q was super excited to start opening his advent calendar gifts last night. Before getting ready for bed, the three of us sat together to talk about Christmas and remind Q just how much we love him. I think the Advent Calendar is going to be one of my favorite Givens family Christmas traditions.

Awards Assembly

Q had his first awards assembly on Friday two recognitions and an award. He received a recognition for perfect attendance with no tardies (thanks to B who gets the sleepy little guy up every morning and to school on time), he received recognition for a "caught being good card" that he earned during recess and the award he received was an award for honesty and integrity. His teacher let us know about the awards assembly ahead of time by slipping a note into his going home folder that also let us know to keep it a secret. He was so surprised to receive his award and was excited that we were there to see him. He even went right up to receive his award and pose for pictures, he's grown up so much since the start of kindergarten just two months ago.

Reading

Q's kindergarten class started using the website Ticket to Read this week. Part of their homework is to log on and use the site for at least 30 minutes a week. The site is really cool, his teacher can go in and check how long each student spent on the website and see which lessons were completed. Q loves all the games and has learned so much.

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun!! Since Q started kindergarten this year, I thought for sure this would be the year that Q would switch from cute costumes to total boy costumes. We looked at costumes online, I thought he might go for iron man or maybe one of the super mario bros. I was so excited when he told me, he doesn't like those kinds if costumes. Since he loves rootbeer right now, I showed him a cute rootbeer bottle costume which he didn't like because he didn't want a straw coming out of his head. On the same site, he spotted this horse costume that he loved! This is probably my last year to enjoy little kid costumes, he's already told me he wants to be a vampire next year. He doesn't even know what a vampire is, he just loves wearing the fangs. Maybe he'll just wear a cute costume again with the fangs, that sounds like something he would do.

Octoberfest!!

Last weekend was the beginning of our Octoberfest! Friday night Q's costume arrived and he loved trying it on, Saturday night we went to Disneyland to check out the Halloween decorations, then on Sunday we went with the Michael family to Tanaka Farms. Tanaka farms was so beautiful, so much better than the side of the road pumpkin patches. The kids got to run through rows and rows of pumpkins and through a corn maze. We took a tractor ride around the farm and got to see a pumpkin cannon shoot a pumpkin 350 yards. I love our version of Octoberfest. We've done the pumpkin patch, now we still have pumpkin carving and Halloween left to enjoy!!