Charting Growth

There are, I imagine, countless ways to chart the growth of a child. There's the classic physical growth chart, hanging on a wall or a door, that a child backs up against while their mom or dad draws a line right above their noggin. We have a Madeline one shaped like the Eiffel Tower. Moving from diapers to pull-ups to underwear is also a big milestone, one I'm hoping the Mouse accomplishes shortly so I can cease spending $8 for 29 pull-ups once a week.

There is another sign of maturity/aging happening in my house today. Well, it's actually going to occur at school, in less than 2 hours. The Bear is buying her 1st school lunch this afternoon. It might seem pedestrian, the idea of not brown bagging it for 1 day, but for the entire month+ that she's been a kindergartner, she has carried her hummus and pitas/egg salad platters/PB&J cracker sandwiches/chicken salad wraps into school while, presumably, other children have ordered the "lunch of the day" or PB&J on white - the 2 daily options at the school cafeteria. All that changes today, and while it may very well mean nothing at all, something tells me this is a sizable step for her.

At some point this morning, she'll have had to announce her lunch intentions to her teacher. Around noontime, she'll use her PIN to pay for her meal - nervously punching up her number on the keypad while her classmates queue behind her. I love that 5-year-olds are learning to memorize and utilize a personal ID number. Considering the volume of passwords and PINs most of us carry around in our mental satchels - this might be the most important thing they'll learn all year.

The lunch of the day for this fine fall Friday is White Pizza, Salad w/ dressing, Pears and a Mini-Donut. Sounds pretty awesome. It's better than anything I'll consume today, that's for sure, but at least I won't have to recall a 5 digit code to pull my food from the fridge.