new school year.. for both of us!

Summer does what it always does and just ended when I was really starting to get the hang of it.  I mean I was really loving it. Not every minute, but man was I getting used to it. Then August came around. Did I just blink? I swear it was May 5 seconds ago. I got so used to our little summer routine the first Tuesday back I seriously got all teary eyed thinking of how we were missing story time. During the summer I saw another teacher I work with at story time weekly and when we returned to work I told her how much I was missing all of that fun kid stuff and she looked at me as if I were unstable and told me I could come to her room and she would read to me if it was that big of a problem. I decided it was time to put my big girl panties on and accept the school year had started. 

So anyway. I went back to school and like always my room was insane. No air, construction madness and so so so so so much dust. I had to go back to work a week before Austin started preschool so thankfully my MIL was able to watch Austin. I also had some amazing help that came to my room and cleaned gross construction dust, took down temporary walls that the construction crew just left for me (hey, thanks!) and all kinds of other nastiness. It takes a village. Thank God they came because I spent every possible moment working on my room I would have never finished without them. Even with all their help I was so behind on preparing music and all the actual.. you know TEACHING stuff I should have been preparing for! 

Loved this welcome back present! 

This was just one of my surprise gems and this picture doesn't show the real deal. There was wood up to the ceiling and huge platforms we had to take apart to get out because they wedged them behind my piano.Every time I removed a piece of plastic gallons of dust "snowed" and made this allergy ridden nerd a disaster. They also broke one of the legs off of this piano and apparently threw it away. 

I never start the year without thinking so much of my Mom. I can picture her on the floor sorting through the hundreds of pieces of music that had been collecting for years. 

I can't get over how differently my room looks now. We worked FOREVER on this music. I swear this wasn't even a percent of it!

Anyway school started for me AND Austin. We have been pretty nervous/excited about this new stage. We were so happy with our arrangement last year but I thought he was needing some social interaction with other kids his age. I toured many "schools" (they get really upset if you call it a daycare fyi) and this one I felt really good about. I didn't realize how lucky I had been being able to set his schedule and keep him in our little bubble for so long. 

I got his shirt made by our sweet friend Libby a few weeks ago and couldn't wait for him to wear it on the first day of school. You would have thought this kid was going to boot camp with all the preparations that went into his "school". 

This was literally one of the hardest days of being a Mom so far. I love my job but as I left my house at 5:45 before anyone else is up knowing I would not see my buddy before such a big day I hated everything about teaching. I felt so sorry for myself that I was teaching other people's kids while missing out on my own child's big milestones. Then I got to work and literally. nothing. worked. My lights did not work (oh, they still don't. we've been having rehearsals using our cellphones as flashlights) the air was not on, my projector motor quit, the printers were not working. After over an hour of being at work I had not accomplished one single thing. I was LIVID. Finally some students walked in and I realized I'd better stop screaming profanity at all things technology and go with it. 

I turned it on, taught my little heart out while in the dark but vowed to change some stuff. I heard another arts teacher say one time you hopefully teach students for 4 years but you're a parent for the rest of your life and I need to start living it. 

Anyway, Austin did well for his first day. He surprisingly did not cry and Philip was able to slip out without him noticing. He also did not eat well and threw most of his food on the floor. He refused to sit in the chairs and was determined to play with toys instead. I've heard preacher's kids are always the worst but I guess teacher's kids maybe come in a close second :) 

The school sends picture updates and emails daily and these are the pictures we got on the first day. 

He doesn't look exceptionally happy but not crying so I guess I'll take it! I usually try to not let him have his pacifier all day and only give it to him during naps or in the car but his teachers said he was determined to keep it and his lovely with him at all times. I feel okay with it for now because I know it's giving him some sense of security. 

After I picked him up I did what any guilty feeling mother does. Gives her child dessert before dinner. 

(I fed him because I didn't want to get his cute shirt dirty, which we did anyway) 

I decided he needed a first day treat so we went to Sweet Ce Ce's. I know he wasn't perfect but I didn't get a call asking to come pick him up so I'm going to call that a success. 

Afterwards he rewarded me with throwing all of his food on the floor because he wasn't hungry because someone fed him Sweet CeCe's before dinner. Who does that? He hasn't napped well at school and by dinner time we are pretty close to epic meltdown mania so I just do whatever to get him through.

The second day was much harder for Philip because now Austin gets it and clung to his leg while he was leaving. His teachers said he was eating a little better and sat at the table some. Baby steps. 

Adjustments are always hard on all of us. I recently started thinking about how much preschool was challenging for us. I can't imagine anything else. Kindergarten? College? How do parents survive? By that point I'll either be clawing at the classroom attempting to get in to "help" or curled in a fetal position crying so hard that I get alien eye (you know, that extra layer or swollen skin after you've cried really hard) but most likely both.  For now I'm happy living in my little world of denial where Austin is forever my baby who enjoys being tickled, playing chase, reading, and is genuinely excited to see us when we get home. 

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.