Emrick: Inside the Mind

I had the following conversations with Emrick, just today:

CONVO 1

Me: I was just looking at pictures of you when you were little.

Emrick: Why?

Me: Because that’s what mommies do.

Emrick: Yeah, that’s right, Mommy. They look at pictures of their beautiful babies when they were little.

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CONVO 2

Emrick: Mommy, do you know the lovable-est baby in the world that’s also a girl? It starts with an H.

Me: Holly!

Emrick: That’s right. Everybody loves Holly because she’s so cute and darling.

Me: Yes, she is.

Emrick: And the lovable-est baby in the world that’s a boy starts with an E. It’s Emrick.

Me: Yes, you are the most lovable baby boy in the world.

Emrick: Yeah, everybody loves me.

(Hmmm… Do I need to cut back on the verbal reassurances of his intrinsic awesomeness?)

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CONVO 3

Emrick: Mommy, do you know how much percent dangerous the UK is?

Me: Ummm, no.

Emrick: It’s 20% dangerous and 80% not dangerous.

Me: Oh, ok.

Emrick: And Liberia in Africa is 0% not dangerous.

Me. That’s interesting. How do you know all of this?

Emrick: I don’t know.

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That kid. He’s on a geography kick right now, in case that wasn’t obvious from the last conversation. Anyway, the reason we had so much time to talk on a Monday, is that Emrick stayed home sick from school today. By the way, did you know Emrick started school last week? He did, and he really likes it. He’s in a class called Transitional Kindergarten, which I explained in my last post. School started for him last Tuesday, so he’s only four days in, but so far it’s going great. It’s only a half day, but unlike his preschool program which he attended last fall in Utah, TK is five days a week. Between that and his being a year older, he’s really warmed up to school a lot faster this year. Last year he said he liked preschool, but he rarely wanted to talk about it, and didn’t seem much interested in the other kids in his class. But this year, he’s a lot more appreciative of the experience and is getting more out of it, so far at least. I felt bad keeping him home today, but he had a stomach bug all day yesterday, and it was still rearing its ugly this morning. But it’s afternoon now, and he is doing much better, and he’s excited to get back to school tomorrow.

Here’s Emrick, on our way out the door on the first day. Kids are asked not to bring a backpack, but just a lunchbox with a small snack packed inside.

TK kids are so young, that parents are required to wait with their students until the teacher opens the door each morning.

Here’s Emrick sitting at his assigned table. He and the other kids were a little uncertain at first if it was ok to start playing with the can of play-doh each was given. It was!

At pick-up time, parents wait outside the gate until students are escorted out by their teacher. The come outside and then line up against the wall by the gate. You can see little Emrick in green, coming toward the gate with his class.

I asked Emrick if he had fun his first day, and he did!