Back To School

Morning hair, chicken pate sandwich the remains of which JD calls dibs on and I’m supposed to carry back to her from the bus stop (instead of throw away)…… So what’s new?

This is Rockstar proudly in his new house t-shirt for games and PE. Very opportune routine ordering of larger-size/ replacement school gear several months ago yielded a note inquiring if we’d like to wait for the new house shirts to come out because they were out of the old ones in Rockstar’s intended size. I was like Sure, and promptly forgot about it. Then Rockstar got them home first thing before games and PE this week and they turned out to be a real hit with him and his friends, an extra motivator for Back To School…

When I saw only the bright purple collar I was OMG What An Ugly Shirt. Then we took it out of the bag and I had to really eat my words. The sleeve trim and side streamline make the shirt look much sportier than the old one, and there’s our Kennedy purple. Rockstar says it almost makes him want to play rugby. Almost :D. He’ll settle for school pride (they ever have inter school science quiz he might ask if he can go in his PE kit :D)

This is a clearer picture today after school, where you can actually see the sides – like the few mum friends we compared notes with – loves!

The pic – also a lesson in……. school social activity. Note the paper….. thing Rockstar is holding. Remember when Rockstar would give friends Star Wars Force Attax cards, both the new unopened packs and his duplicates? We’re not the only ones by a long shot. In some random Pay It Back Forward, Rockstar and Friends are forever doing little things like this for each other and some days it’s really heartwarming. (That one he’s holding was made for him by a classmate who’s really good at folding the things, and I’m guessing distributes his foldings like Rockstar distributes Star Wars trading cards. There’s kids who fold things for him, there’s kids who teach him how to make paper swords out of rolls of scrap paper)..

And Paper Thing abruptly reminded me of a few other stories reciprocal niceness that I’d eventually heard from Rockstar. Here’s a few more recent ones:

1) Rockstar had one friend sometime back whom he observed always let him play whatever he wanted at play time (they apparently still do play together but this friend also goes off to play with other kids who play games Rockstar has no interest in). Weeks/ months later when Rockstar had Force Attax packs, he gave this friend extra. He said it was for letting him play every game he’d wanted to play for many weeks.

2) Another friend of Rockstar’s brought in a Transformer Lego toy for his Show n Tell, that came from Rockstar’s birthday loot bags last year. That would Dec 20 and the last day of school, a fun-filled half day some more, before Christmas break. Seeing his friend remember and bring that in more than 4 months later gave Rockstar a major boost, recently. Frankly, I don’t even know where Rockstar’s is. And those Lego pieces are small.  It was probably one of the most sincere and heartfelt thank you’s he’s ever had – seeing the toy kept nicely and not chucked away. (I jumped at the opportunity to point out what a sincere thank you felt like and to remember to do the same.)

3) Yet another friend of Rockstar’s, whom he’d given some unopened packs of Force Attax cards to, observed that Rockstar had given him unopened packs, and promised that if he came across any of the valuable “Power Up” cards Rockstar needed to complete some sets-within-sets, he would bring them back. He did.

So anyway. Back to school, where I was reminded of a heartwarming lesson:

If you would have a friend, be one.

Oh, and this was The Miss’ back to school outfit…