3rd grade wolf project

Hank sure seemed to like the origami involved in this school project. It looked like he made twice as many wolves as did the other kids in his room.

School mates

Behind the scenes on picture day

First for her; last for me

She was happy and ready to get on that bus this morning and even more so after I relieved her previously unspoken concern that her bus driver would only speak Mandarin to her.

He speaks English, Hope.

She sat right down in the seat behind the driver and waved bye to me. As he pulled away from the curb I saw her grasp the back of his seat with her two little hands, lean forward and start chatting with him with a big smile on her face. My tears surprised me later when I saw my friend at Hank's bus stop. It's been very quiet here today and the hammering in the kitchen sounds a little lonesome.

Back to school

He complained about it last night but this morning he looked pretty excited to get back to school. He came home feeling good about his teachers and his classmates. And lunch: bagel bag. Go get 'em, Hank!

Phobia

Seems like it was only yesterday when Gary had to dash into the men's room with a crying Hank in his arms to hide from an approaching Goldie Gopher at the Metrodome. I remember a day in preschool when Clifford came walking down the hall toward us. I thought Hank would either shake out of his shoes or throw up on me. Maybe both. And then there was the terror-filled Family Fun Day I wrote about.

Well, Hank, all I have to say today is

You've come a long way, baby!

An exception to The Hat Rule

Mr. Bickerson had the pleasure of getting the kids off to school this morning. He's a stickler for the Hats-Off-Indoors Rule and had this anecdote to relate to me tonight:

He and Hank bid adieu to Hope in preschool and walked together down the hall to Hank's classroom where the first graders were lined up, waiting for the okay to enter.

(I admire the first grade teachers. They seem to have everything so...together. But sometimes I like to imagine that they wait until the very last second before the morning bell to open the classroom door because they are all in there downing shots of tequila in hopes of making it through another day. You know. Like I do. Every day.)

Anyway, Hank had his hat on and Gary reminded him, "When you're inside you take your hat off," to which one of his cute little classmates replied (and we don't his name), "We're s'posed to wear our hats indoors. We have LICE!"

Touche' little dude. Touche'.

At the supper table

What's that disease kids get when they scratch their heads too much? Lie? Lying? What do they call it?

Do you mean lice?

Yeah! Lice! Two kids in my class have that disease!