Team Walker: August 2017

Thursday, August 31, 2017

The Rest of the Week

And so, I blinked and she was a kindergartener and I had some free time. Or so I thought. The first day I ran around with Don running errands. The second I met a friend at the park for an early morning walk. I had some time while I was waiting for her and enjoyed the solitude and the view.

After our walk I stopped at the library to return some of Rebekah's books. They strategically put the new releases right next to the door so that I could not leave the building without walking by them. And so I picked up some light reading.

They day went on and I basically got nothing done. I picked her up with complete joy of having my little girl back with me.

The next day I cleaned and such. I decluttered the pantry and found this from her preschool days:

After school was out I picked her up we went swimming. She does love that water squirter.

On Friday, as a family we went to open swim at her swim school. Rebekah had my camera and took this picture. I saved it because of the tenderness of a daddy's strong hands tying his little girl's shoe.

There was much fun to have at the pool. Rebekah recently discovered the joy of being thrown.

And falling backwards.

Playing ball is always fun.

A nice first week.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

The Big Day

It came too quickly. I woke up first. This is what I saw:

Now how was I suppose to interrupt that? So cute and snuggly. I sat and watched knowing full well my life would never be the same. Dramatic, yes. But true.

I finally woke her and we got ready for school. Here she is in all her, "I've got this" glory.

Once we made it out to the car her confidence started to wane.

Just a little bit....

But once we got there, she was back in action.

For the first week we got to walk her to class. She looked at the hall, told me she "could take it from here," and I was good and stopped where I was. Don, however ignored the comment and went all the way.

Don said at this point Rebekah was, "come on dad, I've got to go to school..." in her aura.

Don took the day off because he had a doctor appointment. Actually I think he took the day off to make sure I didn't cause a scene. Either way I spent the day with Don and pondered every single minute of Rebekah's day: she's at lunch now, recess, wonder what she's learning now?, it's Tuesday that means computers, second recess.... etc and so on.

Finally it was time to pick her up. We had to wait in a long line of cars. After much waiting and me having a minor stress build up moment where I yelled to no one in particular, "Come on! They've had her long enough! My turn!", they brought out the kids and I saw my little girl. Loved the smile on her face.

"Best Day Ever," she said as she came in the car. We then took her to have lunch with grammy.

At this point I interviewed her again:

And while grammy and dad were talking we took a few "I missed you" selfies:

Then, to top the day off, we had to stay up for Rec Team. Look at my crazy little swimmer jumping in.

It's amazing to remember how she use to hold on to me in the water, never letting go. And now look at her go. Yes, I'm relating that to school and life in general. My little girl is growing up. Although I will miss the little girl who had to hold my hand and hid behind my side, I am excited to see her jump in with passion.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

The Night Before Kindergarten

The day before kindergarten we went to our last open swim. Only one of our friends were there - most everyone is back at school already. But "Ruby Red" was there with Miss Kathy. Miss Ruby is like the little sister Rebekah never had.

I love the manager, Miss Pam, who always takes time to talk to Rebekah. And it's like she enjoys it, not just doing it because she is trying to get us to remain good clients.

One more picture together with Ruby.

Almost every day Rebekah has Miss Pam measure her, because Miss Pam told her when she reaches the picture she can work there.

We brought celebratory mini cupcakes to mark the occasion. Rebekah shared with the office staff, Miss Kathy and Ruby, leaving the last cupcake for herself of course.

We sure love Miss Pam.

Then we were off to the store for some last minute school supplies. Rebekah found this comfy chair.

That night we had the open house. Rebekah was all ready to meet her Kindergarten teacher.

The open house was interesting. It was so unorganized and utter chaos. "I'm suppose to leave Rebekah in this?" kept rolling through my mind. There may have been tears. From me of course. Rebekah was fine.

That night Don gave Rebekah a father's blessing. Such a good thing.

I interviewed Rebekah about how she was feeling. My hopes are I will do this every year until she graduates. We shall see. But this one is done and it was pretty cute.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

July Books

Meh. Just another book here. Historical Fiction is hard for me: I want it to stick pretty close to the facts. Was Einstein really that awful? I suppose it depends who is writing the history.

I say again: it's incredible the United States ever got up and running. To add to that, people are an interesting study. So much depends on how people treat people and how people react to how they are treated. Not to mention that so much goes on underneath that we don't really know about. Nathaniel Philbrick is a great author.

I loved the author's "A Man Called Ove" so I thought I'd give another one a try. I got to page 46 before I decided to return it. Didn't like where it was going and it had some language issues that I knew were going to get worse. Not worth it.

There was much I didn't know about this story. Glad I read it. I'd like to think of it as an introduction that will lead to another book, knowing I cannot judge any situation on one person's statement. I does make me realize, once again, how spoiled I am.

Despite it's recommendations, this turned out to be just another book about WW2. Not my favorite. Okay though.

This book was good, bad, and ugly. I had a hard time understanding it when I checked it out at the library and was going to give up when I looked back into reviews people left, they mentioned it read better out loud then silently, so I checked out the audio version. I loved the insights into Lincoln: the author collected many peoples opinions of the same event, e.g.: a dinner at the capitol that was given on the same night Willy was very sick: some commented on the beautiful moon, some on the lack of moon. Another poignant part was the conflicting opinions collected about Lincoln himself. I loved to read Lincoln's heartfelt words about the death of his son (some of which, now that I have a child, were hard to read without great heartfelt pain.) I liked the medium the author used to tell the story: basically Lincoln visits the cemetery to visit his boy and in the cemetery are people who believe they are "sick" and therefore have not moved on to the after life. I understand but did not appreciate the spectrum of characters found in the cemetery, in fact I ended up skipping through a lot of the vulgar back woods people who swear every other word and talk crass to get back to Lincoln and the civil war comments. And so: great book, even beautiful at times, if you don't mind wadding through some vulgarity.

A friend suggested this. It was interesting especially considering the age in which it was written. The end was a little too convenient for me but I believe there is much symbolism in the book. A good junior fiction option.

Haunting. Well written. The author writes so well that the cold of Iceland can be felt throughout the book. It is definitely a novel to remember. I highly recommend.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Grammy's Birthday

Someone was having a birthday. Rebekah was very happy to help. She even picked out the pink cake and pink frosting months ago. We made said cake together and I slathered frosting while Rebekah sprinkled.