Day 1,253 - Tasty Donuts, Kindergarten Blues, and Grumpy Little Brothers

It can be hard to be a little brother. I can't confirm that myself because of the whole only child thing. However, from what I've observed over the years, it can be rather difficult. I mean, Bethany's younger brother is 32 years old and the family still refers to him as "The Boy" (although there was a slight push recently to start calling him "The Fellow"). For Ethan, the reminder that he's the younger brother can come at any time and when it does, well, he might just become grumpy!

For Ethan, his most recent bout of little brother, FOMO-induced grumpiness occurred last Friday as we headed to Ellie's school for Breakfast with Buddies. In addition to the obvious breakfast of a donut and milk, Breakfast with Buddies essentially serves as a student-led parent-teacher conference. For Ellie, Breakfast with Buddies was especially exciting as Bethany was actually able to be in attendance due to a day off work!

When the four of us arrived at Fox Hill, the first thing we did was head to Ellie's classroom. The second we got there, Ellie began to excitedly show us around her classroom. The first thing we got to see was her table. There, Ellie shared her self-assessment with us. It was actually pretty interesting because Ellie was able to pick and choose what she wanted to improve at moving forward. She included being able to write 1-20 perfectly, improving at addition and subtraction, and writing better sentences. While it seems like she's doing just fine at all of those things, I was definitely proud of her for highlighting things she wants to do better (literally and figuratively). 

 

While Ellie was excitedly conducting her student-led conference with Bethany, I tried to keep up with Ethan who was happily pinballing around the room. At one point, he found himself in the classroom library where he set out to find any book that he recognized from home. For the record, he did a great job doing just that. We really enjoyed the excitement he showed upon finding one of his favorite books, "Last Stop on Market Street". Ethan also spent time practicing identifying his ABCs (to the relative amazement of Ellie's teacher) and working as a seat-tester by sitting in every seat he could find in the classroom.

When the time came for us to leave, Ethan became slightly agitated as he wanted to know where his seat in the classroom was. You see, at some point during the morning, Ethan became convinced that he was starting Kindergarten on this day. While he didn't fight our declaration that it was time to leave, he was certain to spend the rest of the morning informing us that he was grumpy. He even proudly proclaimed it to the lady working in the Recorder of Deeds office in the Clay County courthouse. That's clearly something that she needed to know, right?

Lucky for us, once we got home, Ethan seemed to forget about his grumpiness and instead gave himself over to the healing powers of Paw Patrol. Convenient since Marshall was wearing his paramedic gear instead of his fireman's suit in the episode.  

Oh wow, that was a really bad joke. Please don't judge me too harshly for that.

#DaddyWrite