Countdown to kindergarten - 13 days

Oh, man, there are 13 days left until Jack starts kindergarten.  I am so not ready for him to go.  Some of his friends have already started, and it's making me a little sniffly how quickly all our babies are growing up.

Sometimes I feel like a bit of an oddball among my friends that I don't want the summer to end.  I know so many people who say things like, "I CAN'T WAIT for school to start again. My kids are driving me crazy!" Or they'll say, "My kids are ready to go back."

That is so not the case in our house.

We are having so much fun together.  Jack is an awesome little guy.  And I realize that one big reason so many people are tired of having their kids home is because their children fight a lot.  I am lucky that right now (KNOCK WOOD), my kids don't that much.

I was watching them the other day, and I realize that there are a few reasons they get along so well.  First, Violet is just a pretty mellow soul.  Jack can be a little intense and overwhelming for some people, but she usually just rolls with it.  They play this game where he taps her on the shoulder, she looks over that shoulder only to find that he's peeking over the other one and then he switches when she turns her head the other way.  I personally could only stand to do that a couple of times before I'd be tired and annoyed by that game.  But Violet just laughs and they do it for much longer than I would find tolerable.

I also saw him fiddling with her feet.  My first instinct if I felt someone poking or tickling me like that would be to swat their hands away, and I know a lot of kids who do do that.  I think that Jack would do that if he were on the receiving end.  But again, Violet just laughed and let him keep doing it.

This is not to say that she likes everything he does.  Every now and then I'll hear her say, "Stop! I don't yike it!"  I'm still working with Jack to actually listen when his friends or his sister indicate that they are done playing whatever game he wants them to play.

The other reason they get along is that they just genuinely like and love each other.  I love when Violet asks me, "Where's my brudder? Where's my Jack-Jack?"

Just the other day in the car, I heard Jack ask Violet, "Violet, do you want to hold hands?"

She said yes.

Then I heard him say, "I love you, Violet."

She answered, "I yuv you, Jack."

He told me, "It's so nice that I always have someone."

People ask Jack all the time if he's "excited for kindergarten."  I'm a little embarrassed by the silent shrug he gives them in response, but honestly, what kind of question is that?  Why would he be excited to go to school when we have so much fun at home?  It's not like he needs to go to school to see his friends.  So no, he's not excited for school, but thankfully he's not nervous or dreading it either.

Me, on the other hand...