Mission completion: first week of first grade

We will not know for certain how last week went until we chat with Elijah's teacher (I've been afraid to ask), but based on what E has told us he did pretty well! He is pretty good at being honest about bad behavior when he is away from us. It's almost like he feels compelled to confess, which is just fine with me!

What we have gathered is that he was told multiple times by his teacher to stop doing "blurt-outs." I didn't even have to ask about this, as I instantly knew what he meant. I witnessed a blurt-out when I attended his talent show for camp in July. After one boy's singing performance, Elijah broke the silence by yelling, "ROCK IT OUT, MAN!" Ok, it was super funny, but not necessarily appropriate. So I'm sure he thinks it's hilarious to do this sort of thing at school, as well.

He also confessed that he laughed a couple times when other kids were being naughty, which is something he does at home all the time. When Sammy is trying to get under our skin, Elijah will give him a subtle thumbs up and smile and very quietly say, "Cool! Good!" Seriously.

He seems to be really excited about music and art class. He is even doing ok so far with having homework, which is a little bit surprising.

We have been putting E to bed before 6:30 every night since mid-August, and it has been helping in the behavioral realm. We also removed (95% of the time) artificial sweeteners/dyes/preservatives and we have cut way back on his sugar intake. It's hard to know how much the food change has helped, but I'd like to think it helps a little bit. Sometimes we have to make exceptions to our rules because we have to live life!

Speaking of living life, the "life" that we lived in July and August has primed Elijah for first grade VERY well. I had been so worried about how last week was going to go and it turns out it was NOTHING compared to some of the behavior and tiredness I dealt with during our crazy summer travels. Last week was a piece of cake and I'm praying it continues to be that way!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Onto another week!