Dennis is in the details

School started this year. Well, it starts every year. But it really started for us this year. Dennis began kindergarten at Greenwood Elementary.
He was excited. He talked about it all summer. And he talked about it. And then he talked about it some more. But as the start of school got closer, he started getting nervous.
Like his father, and so unlike his mother, Dennis is a very detail oriented person. When we tell him we are going on a trip for the weekend, he needs to know what I’m going to pack in his suitcase, where we are going to stay, how long it is going to take to get there, what size bed is he going to sleep in, if raccoons are native creatures to the area. He needs to know everything.
As August arrived, Dennis was beginning to worry about the details. First, he wanted to know what backpack he would have. Then he wanted to know what store I would buy his supplies at. Then he wanted to know his teacher’s name. Of course, the school doesn’t mail class assignment cards until less than a week before school. Thanks a lot. I don’t know what I would have done had Dennis not asked me 5 times a day if I knew who his teacher was going to be.
But, as usual, I digress. Let’s get back on topic.
Dennis’ detail oriented mind needs solutions. And when he doesn’t know the solution, he makes it up.
Two days before school started, he asked me if he could bring my cell phone to school. I beamed. Naturally he wanted my phone so he could call me if he needed me. Wrong. He wanted my cell phone so he could use the calculator on it “in case they make me do math.”
I explained, with a deflated ego, that he would learn to do math without a calculator. Quite exasperated, he exclaimed “But what if they want me to do 60 plus 70 and I don’t know 60 plus 70!”
I laughed. Yes, I did. I had a big hearty laugh right in front of him. I couldn’t compose myself long enough to go in the other room. The desperation in his big blue eyes along with the thought of a 5-year old punching 60 plus 70 into a calculator was just too much for me. It’s not like I was in the running for mother of the year award anyway.
Even before he worried about mathematical quandaries, he worried for his own personal comfort. About a week before school started, Dennis asked his dad if they would have blankets at school. Lars told Dennis that there wouldn’t be time for naps at kindergarten so they had no use for blankets. You see, like me, Lars likes to think he has an idea of what is going on in Dennis’ little mind. Of course, like me, he was wrong.
“But… but what if I get cold?”
I’m sorry, little Prince Dennis. Believe it or not, the entire world does not revolve around your comfort. Only Grandma’s world does that.
Now that school has started, his anxiety has melted away. He knows what to expect, so he isn’t concerned about the routine at school. He is thriving on the predictability. You can imagine that with two little brothers around, he doesn’t get much predictability at home, especially when one of those brothers is Xander.
But, soon enough, there will be another change in his life. And the questions will start again. May I have just as many answers as he has questions. I will, most definitely, have just as many laughs.