We just finished the craziest week of the summer in case you were wondering why F’s birthday post was late. I started it early but nothing was accomplished this week. I’ve been trying to do laundry for days, but just surviving is about where we ended up.
The end of summer means we’re at the start of a new school year. I think we were mostly successful, despite the fact that daycare decided to close for a few days while school was starting. The worst time of the year for them to close? Possibly.
Oh hi, it’s me.
I’ve been silent because life is insane lately. Work is horrible and overwhelming and there’s so much going on I could be working around the clock. Luckily I know how to set a strong boundary, but that just means that my boss is cranky and I’m pissed and everyone is miserable. But yes, let’s take on some more projects.
So I tend to leave work not in the best mood, to go pick up a Kindergartener who feels similar, and then we throw on some kids home from a long day of daycare and everyone could use a little grace lately. And some 1:1 Mama time (which is nearly impossible to come by). We were rescued during Veteran’s day weekend when my parents and Aunt Linzy came to visit. Besides the kids being thrilled, it gave us just enough breathing room for me to relax a bit and Tom to cross some things off our lists and leave us feeling a little less like we were drowning. I’m hopeful Thanksgiving will do the same.
Despite being in denial for as long as I could, it finally happened. We officially have a school aged child that hopped right on the school bus with no hesitation and not even a look back. There were no tears, no extra hugs, no fear. It’s probably a good sign that we’ve done something right, so I’ll try to focus on that and not how rude it was that he didn’t even pretend he was sad to be leaving me.
But to back up, the preparation for this started a while ago. Getting a child ready for school is a lot - there is paperwork and school supplies and labels to put on EVERYTHING. A few weeks ago there was a teacher and classroom announcement where we found out that he didn’t actually have a teacher. It caused a bit of a panic and some worry for us, but luckily one was hired and I think we got a good one. (Is there such a thing as a bad kindergarten teacher?)
We’re still obsessed with happy birthday over here. E can almost sing it by himself, but he still prefers it if we sing it, or we watch his two minute clip on Netflix. The drive home from daycare is prime happy birthday singing time. Lately, singing it is no longer enough. He’s requested that we merge his two favorite things, and sing “Orange Happy Birthday.”
Did you know that on January 15th, 1986 it was -25 degrees in Newport Center? I do, because it’s in my baby book. You may think that’s an odd thing to record in a baby book, but as a new mom I soon realized that sometimes there’s not much going on to write in the baby book! And weather becomes a big deal. Too hot, too cold, too rainy, too anything.. all become great reasons to not go anywhere and spend the day on the couch with the baby.
So if you look in E or G’s baby books, you’ll find random comments on the weather. Especially last week (because you run out of ways to say, we stayed home and did nothing). G’s baby book entries look like this:
A lot! The fall is always my favorite time of year. It seems like it always gets filled up with fun trips and visits and activities that we never get around to at other times of the year. There are holidays to look forward to, the weather is perfect, life is good! However, it seems like I’ll never get around to making a separate blog post about everything we’ve been up to, so instead I’m going to try and play a bit of catch up. So here are a bunch of random but good things we’ve been up to.
Also in completely random updates, E has 4 teeth! We have no idea when #3 and #4 came in - we flipped him upside down the other day (the only way to really check) and he has a mouth full of teeth up there! But since he only has 1 on the bottom, we hadn’t noticed. I guess that’s a good thing though. (Although now that we know they’re here, we’re thinking back on a cranky week last week and wondering if that’s what was going on!)
It's no secret that we love our daycare, and E especially loves it there. He learns new things all the time, and it's amazing. One weekend we noticed he had started bringing books over to us and then immediately sitting down on the ground and crossing his ankles like he's trying to sit cross legged. It's the cutest thing ever, and we definitely have circle time to thank for it.
These are the days I'm going to forget. The days where nothing happens, but that make up the essence of our life. Scheduling our days around naps. Teaching E how to eat and cleaning up so many messes. Jumping in the car and walking around AC Moore or Lowe's or the supermarket so we have a chance to get out of the house and E gets some stimulation and people to look at.
Sitting on the floor playing with toys, watching the kitty and building towers out of blocks. Tossing cat treats that make Maia run in circles and E belly laugh. Watching the world pass by out the window. Turkeys and cars and the neighbors and snow.
Just because the theme with parenting seems to be "Nothing ever goes according to plan," our Halloween plans changed last minute due to a wind storm that knocked out power across New England, and caused trick-or-treating to be postponed in a few local towns (including the one we were going to visit).
Or another way to look at it is that our Halloween celebrations are going to be extended! (and probably cause Thanksgiving to sneak up on us...). So while we haven't gone trick-or-treating yet, we'll get to it soon.