Kindergarten

Ryan's first day of kindergarten!!! He was extremely excited and was telling us to hurry up as we got out of the car to go in the building. He did great and did not seem nervous at all. Mary Lee asked him for a hug as we left and he ran up and punched her on her bottom. He told me later that night that he was just giving mommy some of his "karate love". He had a really good day and told us everything they did in class. He was proud because some little girl in his class told him that he colored good when she looked at the picture he was coloring. I had talked to him the night before to prepare him for some of the kids asking him about his bald head or his eyes. He was disappointed though when none of them ended up asking him about his scar or his head. Ms.Shannon may have spoken to the kids about Ryan last week when he was not there. He told Mary Lee that he wanted to tell them all about his scar and everything, so I expect he'll be holding a seminar later this week for his classmates. I think Ms.Shannon will be a good teacher for him. He'll respond well to her personality and teaching style. Addie is going through withdrawal from her 1st grade teacher, Ms.Anderson, whom she had for the last two years. It's taking her some adjustment to acclimate to a new teacher in 2nd grade, Ms.Kunce. This is a picture from her first day of school last week. I've been interested to know how Addie will act toward Ryan when she sees him in HER school during the day. She'll either be very sweet and excited to pass him in the hall or then again, knowing her quirky personality, she may just completely ignore him all together. It all depends on her mood that day. I still have great hopes for this school year for them both and think that they'll do fine (with a few bumps along the path here and there).
Mary Lee and I have talked about how different things are for Ryan and kindergarten than we had ever expected they'd be. It's hard to see him struggle with things that only a year ago he had no problems with. He's a trooper though and things don't seem to phase him that much. I on the other hand have my up and down days. I'm still steaming from an encounter we had at Toys-R-Us on Saturday. I parked in the handicapped slot and walked Addie and Ryan into the store but had forgotten to hang the tag on the mirror. A snippy old woman came in behind us and said loudly to her grandson, obviously for my benefit, that handicapped spaces were for handicapped people not for people who were just too lazy to walk further. I ignored it and didn't think much of her until she then felt the need a few minutes later, while I was standing right next to my bald 5 yr. old with a scar all the way up the back of his head and crossed eyes, to walk up to me and ask me if that was my van in the handicapped slot. I know we should have better attitudes and shine the love of Christ to the world but in that moment there were no "loving" thoughts in my head and I broke it off on her and ended up telling her if I wanted her opinion I'd come ask her for it. So much for my witness that day. The ironic thing was that our Sunday school lesson the next day was on patience. Go figure!
In unrelated news, my mom, Jackie Carrigan, is back in the hospital with yet another broken vertebrae. This makes the fourth or fifth time she has broken some. Keep her in your prayers. Only a few months ago she had major back surgery to install metal rods to stabilize her back and she is already having problems again.
Ryan has another hearing test Tuesday afternoon so put it at the top of your prayer list. Last time we had a little scare because the test showed possible hearing loss but the oncologist ended up saying he thought what they saw on the test wasn't anything to worry about. Let's hope we don't see anything different this time. Ryan also has his 7th round of chemo coming up on Thursday and Friday this week so we'll be in the hospital most of the weekend.