I thought Day 2 was rough???

Well, things have continued to go wrong with kindergarten. Poor Brandon. I was envisioning such an easy transition, but I guess he really is a little 5 year old boy and not the grown-up young man that I sometimes think he is!

Yesterday as soon as school got out, I got a call from his teacher. You know this can't be good, right? She said that Brandon is having a really hard time listening to her. He is very loud and disruptive. She said, "He is a boy's boy and if there is a mischief to be found, Brandon will find it." She said lunch time is particularly difficult. They are supposed to sit in their seats at the cafeteria the whole time they eat. Brandon thinks that is ridiculous. He was very rowdy and I guess was getting the kids at his table to act up with him. So, she moved him to another table and he was good for a little while and then got that whole table acting wild. GREAT! My kid is the trouble maker! She also said that they were going to have an afternoon recess and she told Brandon that it was a treat recess and if he couldn't listen, he wouldn't get to play with the other children. And he said, "I didn't want to go outside and play anyway!" So he had to sit out. So, she just wanted to make me aware of what was going on and talk to him about it at home so that he knew it was unacceptable behavior.

When the bus pulled up, he came running to the house, all smiles. I gave him a big hug and asked him how his day went. "Good." What did you do? "We had music time. We sang songs, but didn't get to play any instruments. Our teacher is Ms. Grant." He told me a little more about his day. Were you a good listener for Ms. Bledsoe? "Yes!" That's not what she told me. Then we had a LONG conversation about what's acceptable behavior in kindergarten. He really doesn't like school right now. I think it's too long for him. And it's a hard transition to learn all the new rules at this school.

I know he'll come around and will be doing fine by the end of the year. I'm just wondering how long it's going to take to get there. At the beginning of preschool last year, he had a rough time for the first MONTH and then he started to settle into the routine. I hope it doesn't take that long again!

On the plus side, I DID print out a little incentive calendar and it worked this morning. I told Brandon that he needs to get himself dressed, eat breakfast, brush his teeth, comb his hair, and pack his lunch without me having to push and prod. If he can do it for 10 days, we get to take the calendar to Chuck E. Cheese's for 10 free tokens. It was a miraculous turnaround this morning. He did every single one of those things without me asking and he made it out the door just in time for the bus. Phew.

His teacher just sent me an e-mail saying that he had apologized to her and was doing better today. Yeah! Maybe he won't be labeled as THE BAD KID right from the start.

Whitney and I have been enjoying our time together since school started. We've gone shopping, played princesses, read a lot of books, played with play-doh. What a fun life I have.

I've kind of hit a rut in my cooking routine. I have a list of about 12 meals that we eat every 3 weeks or so. I'm bored with some of them and have started looking for new recipes. I tried a couple over the last few days. One was burritos with black beans and rice. Everyone liked them. Yippee--a new one to add to the list. Last night I made Southwest Pasta with chickpeas, diced tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, chili powder, cumin, and corn. Top it with cheese. I thought it was great. Andrew thought it was ok. Whitney refused to eat it. I'm not sure if it will stay on the list or not. I want recipes that take 30 minutes or less to cook, are easy to make, and preferably don't have meat in them. Is that too much to ask? :) If you have any recipes that fit this description, please share. I got the burrito and pasta recipes from the internet, but I find that I have to sift through a lot of recipes that I would never eat to find ones that I like.