September activities

School has been in session for just about a month now.  We have had open houses and schedules are getting set into place.  I went and read to Robert's class and did a craft with them a couple of weeks ago now.  It was a fun activity.  We made octopus puppets out of gloves and read a book called The Tickly Octopus.  The craft was very simple.  I will put a picture of some of the results below.

It was fun to see Robert's classroom and to meet his classmates.  He seems to like kindergarten, but has been very happy for his "free" days on the weekends.  I think it is both wearing him out, but making it hard to fall asleep some nights as he tries to process his busy days at school at bedtime.

There was an open house at the fire station last weekend.  We went on a ride on an old firetruck and explored the buildings and fire trucks, along with an ambulance.  It was amazing to me to see how far ambulances have come since I worked on one in college over 20 years ago now.

Robert is still young enough that he enjoyed getting a sticker badge and a hat.  Harry accepted the sticker, but didn't put it on.  He was not interested in a hat.  Over the years we have gathered many of those hats, but I think this is Robert's first that was just for him and never belonged to his big brother first.

We have also been apple picking.  That was on a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon and we got a peck of apples of all kinds of varieties.  It is an orchard we have been to a couple of times now.  The trees are low and so it is easy for the boys to pick too.  I haven't yet made lots of apple things, but I will eventually.  In the meantime we have lots of lovely fresh apples to eat.

 

Finally church school is in session again.  We have had 2 weeks so far and things seem to be going well.  Here is Fr. Kevin blessing the children's backpacks for the new school year last week.

Catching up

School has been in session for a few weeks now.  We are settling back into routines.  I think I am doing well making the adjustment but I am a little on edge.  Some things upset me more than they should and so I know I am still carrying a certain amount of stress.

Here is Robert with our recycling basket.  Sometime last year we started a chore chart with the boys.  They have chores they need to do, just as members of the family and then they have chores that they can be paid to do.  At the end of the week, they fill out their form and they get paid.  It has been working pretty well.  It is harder to fit everything in with them away all day at school, but they are managing.  Even Robert has saved a good amount of money.

Robert now goes to the library at school too.  It is interesting to see which books he brings home.  A couple of Fridays ago he brought a craft book home.  One of the crafts was this cute octopus puppet.  I sent this  picture to his kindergarten teacher and she asked me to come to class and do the craft with the whole class.  I did it this week and it was lots of fun.  It was especially fun to meet his classmates and see where he is spending his weekdays.

I miss Robert during the day.  Sometimes I find it has been hours since I have talked to somebody and that is strange.  I am enjoying the chance to catch up on things in the house.  At the same time I have found that there have been many things that need doing and I am not catching up as quickly as I thought I would.

Here is the big boy in the beech tree at church.  This was the day of the parish picnic.  I like this picture.  It shows me so many things.  He has grown so much and is getting more confident in himself.  He seems to be transitioning well into the middle school.  He has more homework, but he approaches it well and has gotten it done even on the evenings when he really would rather not.  I am very proud of my boy.  He has some special needs, but it is amazing how much he overcomes and excels in.

I watch my children every day and am amazed that my babies are little boys.  I want to hold on to this time and make it count.  I am trying very hard not to rush things and to just enjoy the little things in life.  Like Robert who right now is talking to me, so I need to end this and pay attention to him.

First Day of School - Part 2 Kindergarten

My baby is a kindergartner!  He has been going to school now since Friday.  On Thursday there was an orientation for the children and their parents.  That was lovely the second time around.  When Harry went to kindergarten, I was much more nervous about the mechanics of things.  This time I know the routine and was able instead to focus on the little person and what he was going to experience and also a bit on myself and my dread of being alone at home for extended periods of time for the first time in over 10 years!  Who would think that this introvert would be dreading silence?  Really it is more the fear and sadness of letting go.  I think that is what having children is about sometimes.  We let go.  It is a series of small and large ways in which we let go.  As mothers it is a visceral thing because we are the ones who carried these little people in our bodies.  We are the ones who set their first rhythms as they traveled along within us for nine months.  Nobody knows us more intimately and we don't ever have a more intimate relationship than the one we have with our babies.

Mind you I understand that it is a similar experience for men.  The introduction of children into a relationship changes things.  It certainly isn't all happy things.  We have to learn again how to share; our time, our bodies, our loved ones. It brings a certain tension for everybody, but I guess the reason people have children is that it also brings a great joy.  For all of us mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and grandparents, children are a reminder that life goes on and that there is hope and newness.  They challenge and frustrate us to see things in a different light.  They remind us sometimes that we didn't always look at the world through our adult eyes.

So anyway, before I wax too philosophical, Robert is now in school and on his own for 7 hours a day.  He seems to be doing fine.  I will now attach some pictures of Robert's first couple of days.

Here he is in his new classroom on orientation day - his spot is right in front of the teacher :-)

Ready to go to the bus

Every year I have a picture of Harry and Kevin walking to the bus.  There is not one of Robert & Kevin because Robert and I walked to the bus together.  Even though in the past year or so, Robert has moved some away from me and declared Daddy is more fun and more beloved, I am still the one he seeks out in new situations and for comfort.  If I was worried that we'd lost some of that, I am not anymore.  The experience of starting kindergarten taught me that anew.  I know that the little guy I put on the bus will be very different come June when school comes to an end.  I remember that phenomenon with Harry.  He went to school looking so little and although he wasn't that much bigger at the end of the year, he had changed.  He looked more like a little boy than a toddler and that is the change I am expecting.  

Getting off the bus at school (yes we followed the bus and actually I did end up talking to him again because he was a little uncertain of where he should go and what he should do.  I gave him a nudge and a smile and I think that helped.)