First Day of School

We'll have some photos later. Chris already downloaded them, but they're on his computer where I can't get them to post them because he and Max are already at boy scouts.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are once again the days to survive this year. In addition to the extra hour of school that our charter school has because of the extra half-hour each of Chinese and Spanish instruction, there is the extended day program. At no additional cost to students, we have a big snack break followed by a 40-minute class, another 5 minute break, and a second 40-minute class. Then it's 5:25 and some of the kids still have to ride a bus home.

I've always thought this was a bit much for a little guy, so I don't encourage Max to do the extended day program more than twice a week and I wouldn't have signed up the twins at all--except that Chris and I are teaching Readers' Theatre there twice a week--so the twinks are doing RT with me on Tuesdays and going to kindy Science club on Thursdays.

My class is in the first "hour" and Chris's class is in the second "hour" on Tuesdays, so the twinks and I leave at 4:40 and Max and Chris stay for another 40 minutes and then come home. But Tuesday nights are also boy scouts, so just as soon as we get home, the twinks practice piano while I make dinner. Then Max and Chris get home, we all eat, and the big boys head off to Boy Scouts. The twinks are now reading books on the couch and I plan on trying to get them in bed at 8:00 pm--fully an hour or more earlier than they went to bed most of the summer. But with such a long day--they need some sleep!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the beginning. I woke up at 6am with a sour stomach. So I went off in a futile search for Tums. I may have taken my medication for the day at this time. I'm not really sure. This is important.

I settled in at my desk and did some more work on the Viking Twist on Orange Twist sweater until the alarm went off. I got the twins dressed, got myself through the shower, Max through the shower, and Chris to feed the twins. I was feeling kind of anxious, so I went to the cupboard and took my medication--again. I had no memory of having taken the medication earlier. Now this anti-anxiety medication--you can't overdose on it. But it WILL put you to sleep. I take a *very* low dose of it, but even so, in all, I tripled my normal dose this morning.

Oops.

We got out the door at 8:00 am, Max gave me a huge before we left the house saying he wanted a hug, but not in front of "everyone in class." He's 11. Honestly, I am just grateful it's taken him this long to get picky about public displays of affections. We picked up Grandma Gaye, and headed over to school. We took pictures of Max and his teacher, pictures of the twins and their teachers, handed out some first-day-of-school treats to the teachers (blueberry jam and salsa, mostly), hugged the twins, and left.

Oh, wait. Little Ben story here. In the kindergarten class was one tiny little kindergartner that is the little sister of one of Max's friends (15 out of 19 students in this year's kindergarten class is the younger sibling of an existing charter school student). She and her baby sister and Ben and Milo had had a wonderful afternoon last winter chasing each other all around the ski lodge.

So anyway, this morning little T was just not wild about this whole kindergarten mess. She had been crying hard and was still sniffling loudly when Ben and I went over to say Hi. The conversation went something like this.

:Mom gets down to Ben and T's height. She puts arm around Ben. Ben stares with concern at T. T glances at Me, but won't make eye contact. On the other hand, she doesn't run away, either.:
Me: T, do you remember Ben?
T shakes head, no.
Me: Ben remembers you!
:Ben raises an eyebrow, but does not correct me. He has already told me that he doesn't remember T, but he's willing to pretend to:
:T glances at Ben again, this time taking a longer look at the face. Nope! Still don't know that kid. Shakes her head a little, but is listening.:
Me: Ben's big brother is friends with your big brother Kurt.
:T glances at me. Her face says, "Keep talking.":
Me: You and your little sister and Ben and his brother Milo met at the ski lodge last winter.
:T glances at me incredulously. She is clearly thinking, "What in the heck is a ski lodge, lady?":
Me: The four of you chased each other around while the big kids went skiing.
:T glances at me again. She has to admit this does sound like something she would do.:
Me: You caught Ben and you were Soooo strong, you even picked him all the way up off the ground!!
:Ben stands up straighter and smiles. He remembers that part.:
:T flashes Ben a dimple. Yeah, she may be half his size, but she could TOTALLY lift that dude up off the floor. She forgets to sniffle.:
Me: Well, Ben needs to go back to his seat now, but he wanted to tell you that he hopes you'll be his friend now in kindergarten and he's glad to see you here.
Ben: Yeah.
T: 'k.
T smiles shyly and turns away. Ben grins and hurries to go tell Milo about T.

Mom and Grandma and Daddy exit, stage left.

We checked the mail (good mail day) and went to the Waffle Shop where we met up with Jill and ate our fill of yummy breakfast food. At the start of breakfast I was starting to feel kind of yawnny, and by the end of it, I was leaning up against Chris to stay upright. Jill, Chris, and Gaye had giggles at my expense as we all realized that I had somehow miscalculated dosages somewhere in the morning.

We headed home and I tried to get started on work, but didn't manage more than a few emails before I had to give up. 15 minutes later I lay down on the couch for a short nap and slept like the dead for over 4 hours. Jill came to get Emily to take her to the park and I have no memory whatsoever of her bringing Emily back. Apparently Schwan's showed up and left a note on the door fifteen feet from the couch, but I have no memory of that either. I feel a little guilty about all the work I didn't get done, but then again--it was a great nap and I woke up in time to throw together the first lesson for this afternoon's Readers' Theatre.