Our New Life

Just thought it was time for me to actually say something about our new lives rather than writing outdated stuff.  A few posts back, I wrote that our beloved dog Sunshine was killed while staying at my parents' house.  I still miss that dummy, and I know the kids do too.  They both still talk about him at random times throughout our days.  The good news is that Grandma T just got the kids a new puppy.  The bad news is that it is going to take the better part of a year to get this puppy remotely close to being as well-trained as Sunshine was.  Still, I'm excited to meet the little guy.  He's staying with Grandma T until we can pick him up.

Of course, Pumpkin started Kindergarten this year.  He had a rough first week.  Turns out a little girl at his table teased him all week long about (of all things) his water bottle, and she apparently had all the other girls at their table joining in the teasing too.  Probably about all sorts of stupid, inconsequential things, but it mattered to him.  I didn't even pick up on it until the weekend.  We were at Target, and I started wondering why Pumpkin was being so insistent on getting a new water bottle.  When he finally told me, I nearly blew it off as no big deal until he quietly admitted that the girls' teasing made him "feel bad."  That week, another little girl told him on the playground that she would only be his friend if he would get a better haircut because his was "dumb" or something like that.  WTH?

I miss his old school where we never encountered problems like these.  Unlike last year when his class was 90% boys, girls in his class this year far outnumber the boys so I'm starting to wonder whether all this drama is because of the girls (y'know, a girl thing).  From where I'm standing, it sure seems to be.  I asked his teacher to move Pumpkin away from the mean girl and place him at a table with at least one other boy.  She did, and he seems a lot happier now...even though it turns out he's now at the table with the girl from the playground.  {sigh}  Thankfully, she doesn't seem to bother him as much though he still says she's not that nice.

Every so often, I ask about the other little girl, and he says that he never talks to her, even on the playground.  My goal now is to get him to understand that he can still be nice to that little girl even if she isn't nice herself.