Journey to Sydney

Our dear friend Jackie leaves tomorrow for Vietnam to pick up and bring home her baby girl, Sydney Mai. Steve and I are so honored to be Sydney's godparents. We can't wait to welcome her home! Jackie plans to keep friends informed of her adventure on her new blog.

First (abbreviated) day of school

I think he grew an inch in just the past week!

Katie was napping when her big brother left for school.

After all the forced photos, Cooper was ready for some silliness.

Cooper found an old friend -- soccer teammate Reilly.

With some free time in the classroom, Cooper settles in with Scooby and the Magic School Bus.

Meanwhile, Katie and Grandma played at home.

Cooper survived -- and thoroughly enjoyed -- 90 minutes of introduction to kindergarten this morning and a 20-minute language arts evaluation with Mrs. D this afternoon. Just before he fell asleep tonight, I asked him, "What was your favorite thing today?" "Going to school," he answered.

I was only a bit misty during the kindergarten orientation. (The kids were off in the gym and library while the parents learned about logistics -- dropping off, picking up, lunch, snack, recess, folders, feedback, parties, e-mail, etc.)

Cooper spent three-and-a-half years in day care and a year in preschool, so I'm not upset about him being away from home. But I definitely feel a loss of control with public school. I rationally understand that this is a normal part of growing up -- gaining independence, learning to make decisions on his own, choosing friends. But it still breaks my heart a tiny bit.

Tomorrow is the first full day, and he's so ready. I'm thankful that he's enthusiastic about the experience -- it would be much more difficult for me if he didn't want to go.

Puzzling geography lesson

Cooper is so fortunate to have generous friends, like Miss Sharon, who recently emptied most of her game closet and sent us home with dozens of boxes of puzzles and board games. (Her boys, now teenagers, took remarkably good care of their games!) We've since been playing a lot of Trouble, Battleship and Guess Who?, and Cooper has been piecing together 100- and 300-piece puzzles -- a big leap from the 48-piece ones he already owned.

This detailed Carmen Sandiego map of the United States is the most challenging yet. He's been working on it off and on, with our help, since Friday afternoon and was very proud to finish it this morning after church.

Meet-the-teacher night

Note that lunch is at 10:40 a.m.!

We met Cooper D's kindergarten teacher tonight -- Mrs. Despino, aka Mrs. D. I'm very excited. I observed Mrs. Despino's class one morning last spring and was impressed with how she handled/wrangled 22 or so children. She should be a good fit for Cooper -- strict, efficient, no-nonsense but still friendly. He definitely needs someone who will enforce rules! None of the boys from his soccer team are in his class, but there are twin girls who we know from the playground.

Cooper invited Grandma and Papa up for the event, and after we all went out for pizza. (Thanks to Grandma for being the official photographer of the night!)

Postcard from the beach

Sarah arrived yesterday morning to hang out with me when I'm not at the conference and to swim, see the sights and relax a little. Last night we drove down Santa Monica Boulevard to the Pacific Coast Highway. I love Santa Monica and have great memories from when Steve was an Arthur Andersen consultant, living in Marina del Ray four or five days a week. I would fly out every six weeks or so (instead of him flying home), and we would go to the beach, eat at fabulous restaurants, go to the movies, shop, etc.

Yesterday was my manuscript critique, with a book editor from Knopf. She was very helpful -- and I have a lot of work to do on Graham the Duck. I'm looking forward to a plotting class today with Caroline Cooney.

More to come later. I'm on my way to the first session.

Postcard from L.A.

I’m at the SCBWI conference, Day 1. It’s been a good day, though I am tired. It’s 8:15 p.m. at the hotel, which means it’s 10:15 p.m. at home, and I’ve been up since 4:30 a.m. Dallas time.

The sessions have been informative and energizing. Of course, I enjoyed the Mo Willems presentation this morning. He even taught everyone how to draw the pigeon.

Elisa Primavera (of Auntie Claus fame) was a wonderful speaker, too. The most inspiring speaker was Jacqueline Woodson, who has written young adult novels and picture books. Her writing is lyrical and descriptive, and she read beautifully.

In other news …
Katie’s walking! She started taking more than one step at a time last Saturday, when she was home with Steve and Cooper. She still prefers cruising or crawling (or being toted by one of us), but she’s getting a bit braver and more sure every day. She’s also becoming an accomplished swimmer. She kicks constantly when I hold her in the pool, and she’s sometimes bold enough to jump off a step and swim a couple of feet toward me.

Cooper is counting the days to kindergarten. We visit the school a week from today to get his teacher assignment and meet her (all seven of the potential teachers are women). He told me this week that he’s worried no one will like him. Of course, Steve and I assured him that he’d make lots of friends – he’s been doing so, after all, since he was a tiny baby.

Books we read before Katie's morning nap

The Napping House
Hey! Wake Up!
Doggies
Curious George's ABCs
The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too!

The pigeon book is by Mo Willems, who I hope to meet when I attend the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators annual conference in less than two weeks. Mo is one of the keynote speakers and is conducting a workshop for writers. Elisa Primavera will be there, too. She wrote and illustrated another favorite -- Auntie Claus.

This site makes me happy

www.wherethehellismatt.com

Alice Cooper

Steve's maternal grandmother, Alice Cooper, 93, died Saturday in Dallas. She had lived here for more than four years, after moving from Upstate New York. We'll miss her terribly, but we're so thankful for the time we spent with her. Cooper was very fond of "Grandma Alice" and liked to talk to her about all kinds of things -- movies, books, school. The photo is from Christmas Eve 2005, when he's showing her a Star Wars sticker book and explaining all the characters.

Viewpoints debut (sort of)

I have a column on the Viewpoints (op-ed) page of The Dallas Morning News today. I've written hundreds of headlines and re-written a few columns for the page, but this is my first credited piece.

Cooper, my biggest fan next to Steve, was so excited to see my photo on the page this morning. "Mommy! You're famous! Everyone will want to meet you because you're in everyone's newspaper!" If only his enthusiasm for daily papers could stem the painful death of the industry.