In all seriousness though...

Aubrey's first couple of days have gone well. The first afternoon, she was so tired, and didn't want to really tell me too much about her day, unless I asked very specific questions. She summed up the first day very succinctly by saying, "we mostly sat at the tables." I managed to coax a little bit more out of her and so here it is. I learned that the first day, she had music, with a teacher who, I found out, goes by the name Mrs. T-Bone. (I actually am not entirely convinced the teacher goes by Mrs. T-Bone, but I looked her up on the website and her name is Mrs. Thiebaud, so either Aubrey is misunderstanding her name, or she really does go by that.) Aside from singing a song about snails in music (which I am sad she doesn't remember the words to), they had P.E., were they watched a movie about a "some boys who were not very careful on their bikes and fell down, but they were wearing helmets" (so I'm thinking bike safety?) The second day in P.E., they ran around the baseball diamond with Aubrey's "coach and his girl helper." Her teacher, Mrs. McCauley read them a story on the first day about a kindergartner who didn't want to go to school, and no stories were read on the second day. (not too convinced of that either).

The first day, their student teacher, Ms. Craig, showed them around the classroom, where each of the different centers were, including a kitchen center, which I regret to say, Aubrey somehow heard you could make real food at, despite it being pretend. Imagine her disappointment when, upon choosing that center to play in on the second day, she discovered that no, the little play stove does NOT make real food. "Just pretend food!" she told me yesterday. Well, imagine that. And the other centers, a math one, the computers, the stuffed animals, the name writing center (and probably more), she was not able to play in yesterday. Apparently, there are more girls than boys in her class, but she told me in her group for centers, besides her there are only two boys. There also happens to be a large drawer that holds all the backpacks and "there's a LOT of backpacks in there!" So I guess they don't have cubbies.

At the playground on the first day, she found her friend Aubrey, on the playground. They each wanted the other to go down the fire pole first so after a short debate, neither one of them went down it and went down the twirly slide and bumpy slide instead. She did not play with Aubrey the next day but did play with some kids in her class, who she didn't know the names of. And she went down the fire pole twice, but, "the first time I hurt my bum!" and also got "sticks" in her shoes (I think that's the wood chips).

At lunch the first day, she hardly ate anything, and she sat by kids she didn't know. (I found out through a friend that who they stand next to in line to go to the cafeteria is who they sit by once there). She didn't seem to upset by that. The second day, she must have wanted to get acquainted with the school nurse because she threw up at lunch and paid her a visit. Not to gross anyone out, but she said, she had coughed really hard and then threw up into her hands. And it was only a tiny little bit. Her friends got the lunch aide who took her down to the nurse and she got to wash her hands and face there, get a drink, and put a wet paper towel on her forehead and rest. It apparently wasn't that bad because the nurse didn't call home about it, I only found out when Aubrey came home and she told me, before moving on to the next thing she had to say. She didn't stay very long in the nurse's office, because Ms. Craig came and got her and took her to class, where they were having rest time, which is after lunch. And she still went to P.E. and was fine. She didn't have a fever, and her color was good, and she was hungry when she came home, and didn't have any problems the rest of the day so I figured she must have like, gagged or something and it wasn't technically throwing up. I don't know. I still find it weird the nurse didn't call me though. (I wonder if Aubrey gets the distinction of the first child to throw up at Kohrville in the 2007-08 school year). Anyway, so, I guess she figured out while in her two short visits to the cafeteria that she wanted to buy her lunch. Unfortunately, since her choices were steak fingers or roast chicken today, she opted for a different day to buy. We didn't have a discussion about what each of those things were, and I don't think she knows what steak fingers are, maybe that's why she didn't want them. She probably wouldn't have wanted them anyway. She is looking forward to buying chocolate milk in the cafeteria, as soon as we can figure out a convenient way to remember her pin number that she was assigned, for making purchases, which happens to be five digits, something like, 73419. Any ideas on that one?

She doesn't know the names of the kids in her class, except Calista, the girl who we saw with the Princess backpack (and I only know her name because I looked on her backpack to see it), and also a girl with a sort of Indian sounding name, like Eejda. (I'm only guessing on that one, that's the way it sounds when Aubrey says it) And last night, she asked me, "mom, do you think Jesus (pronounced by her as HayZEUS) is a girl's name or a boy's name?" and I told her I was pretty sure it was a boy's name, and she said, "nope! It's a girl's name!" and I asked her, "are you SURE it was a girl?" and she told me, yes, she was sure, it was a girl in her class, but she was also sure that I could think it was a boy's name if I wanted to. Well, thank you Aubrey.

The only trauma that we experienced (besides the barfing which she seemed pretty non plussed about) was the first day I picked her up in the car after school and she didn't know where I was and she had waited a long time (only like, 10 or 15 minutes, and hey, I was there 30 minutes before school got out) and she didn't know if I was coming to get her. But luckily, her teachers and a kid in her class were able to make her happy while she waited. They yell the kids' names over a megaphone when you get close enough to get your kid, and all the students are just huddled underneath the porch at the front of the school, and it was so loud, Aubrey couldn't hear her name being called, never mind that they first two times they called her "Arby Stull" and then "Jonathan Schmoll." (And just as a sidenote, how in the WORLD does Aubrey sound like Jonathan?)

And so, I think that's about it for her first few days. She has enjoyed it, besides being very tired when she comes home. She is excited to go for a whole week at a time (as opposed to only three days, which her preschool was). She was much more animated this morning getting ready than she was yesterday, so I didn't play the fast paced music while she was getting ready like I did yesterday (you know, Flight of the Bumblebee and other such songs, just kidding). I curled her hair today, so maybe that's why she was excited for life. I think Wednesday is library day, so I'm interested to see if she comes home with library books. I'm looking forward to the stories she has to tell me today. Andrew is always glad to see her when she gets home too. Today, while looking at a picture of her, I asked him, "where is Aubrey?" and he looked at the picture and smiled. He misses her when she is gone, and I think she misses him too. They played together a little this morning, and they both enjoyed that. Andrew is a lot happier when she is around, he is having a hard time adjusting to his big sister being away. And his mom is too. Just kidding. Actually, I am having a hard time adjusting to the fact that I have so much free time. And I don't want to jinx myself here, but yesterday, I had all the household chores and stuff I do on Tuesdays done, I had taken a shower and read my scriptures and done everything I needed to do by about 11:00 a.m. And then I sat there and wondered what I should do with myself. I ended up putting some food in the crock pot for dinner (which actually just freed up more time) and then I decided I needed to take up a new hobby. So I signed up to be a volunteer FamilySearch Indexer(You can look in July's Ensign to find out about it). I took about a two hour course online and now I'm ready to do a bunch of name indexing. That should keep me busy, I'm hoping. And meanwhile, I'll still be asking Aubrey to play the minute she comes home. Well, I might let her take a little rest first.