A Morning for Me
Overextended. Frazzled. Stressed out. Just a few words to describe how I’ve been feeling for most of the last four weeks. I thought September would bring more routine to my life- a weekly rhythm that I could coast along with comfort and ease. But that was not the case. It hasn’t been any one thing in particular keeping me busy. Just a whole lot of separate commitments and very little down time.
By the end of last week, I was really feeling it- a HUGE need for some time where I did absolutely nothing and nothing was expected of me. So I scheduled a long overdue massage (using a gift certificate that I’d received for my birthday last December), and today was my lucky day.
I dropped the kids off at preschool, did just a few quick errands, and then headed to the spa for 60 minutes of pure rest and relaxation. It was heavenly and passed by way too quickly. But it really was just what I needed. Nothing in my life has changed. I still have all the same commitments and all the same chores and projects waiting for me to complete. But as I left the spa, I felt truly relaxed and clam, as though a huge weight had been lifted. I felt happy again.
Clearly, this is something I should do more often.
Backtracking- September 12th: First Day of Preschool!
September 12th- Buba and Tiny were very, very excited about their first day of preschool. Tiny assured me that it was not necessary for me to park and come into her classroom, but given the amount of things we needed to bring in, I insisted that I was going in. Still, I didn’t stay any longer than was necessary, and not a tear was shed from any of us when I said my quick good-byes. On day two, I let Tiny have her way, and I just pulled up to the curbside drop off area in front of the school. Both kids went willingly with their teacher, and I don’t think either one even said goodbye to me. Since day two, we’ve done curbside drop off every morning, as well as curbside pick up a handful of times.
I don’t get a ton of information from the kids about what they do at preschool, but I do know that Tiny is loving that she gets to cut with scissors, and Buba enjoys playing with two girls (fraternal twins) most days. Tiny is usually the one to report which of her classmates cried or made naughty choices, and Buba is usually the one who shares the new songs that they’ve learned. They’ve both loved doing art projects and have come home covered in paint and/or markers more than once.
- Buba’s artwork from the first day
- Tiny’s artwork from the first day
- using foam paint
The first week of preschool, their school days were just 2 hours long, but on the 19th, they began their usual 9am-12pm schedule. On Monday, I will have my first day as a parent helper. We are all loving this!
Backtracking- September 11th: Getting Ready for Day One
September 11th- I spent the better part of this day scrambling to get everything ready for the kids’ first day of preschool. I needed to make sure I had a bag of extra clothes for each kid, a box (shoe box size) decorated with photos of themselves and our family for each kid, as well as one framed 4 x 6 family photo. The clothing part was easy, and the framed photo wasn’t too tough, but the box decorating project took a considerable amount of time. In hindsight, it probably would have been much easier and faster to just do them myself. But I wanted the kids to be as involved as they could be. I let them help affix the tape as we wrapped the boxes with colored tissue paper (much easier said than done for a 3.5 year old), and I let them look thorough the collection of photos I’d printed and choose which ones they wanted on their own boxes. Buba was happy to let me crop and tape the photos on his box while he was off playing, but Tiny wanted to be involved every step of the way. This was especially tricky, because the photos needed to be arranged just so in order to fit them all on. It was also very tricky because she was quite resistant to my guidance. But eventually, we got the job done.
Backtracking- September 9th: Visiting Day at Preschool
September 9th- Buba and Tiny had a one hour visiting session with a few classmates and their parents in their preschool classroom the Friday before the first day of school. The visiting hours were arranged so that only 4-5 children were visiting each hour, and it was nice for our first experience to be in a small group format. Tiny was so excited and actually ran into the arms of one of her teachers as soon as the teacher opened the bright yellow door to the classroom. Both kids appeared very comfortable as they explored the classroom, and Tiny practically sat in the other teacher’s lap during circle time. She already loved her teachers wholeheartedly.
- photo op outside the preschool
Backtracking- September 8th: A Visit with the Dentist
September 8th- Tiny and Buba had their second appointment with the dentist. The kids went back all by themselves, leaving me to wait in the waiting room. They sat in side by side chairs while the hygienists counted and checked their teeth. The dentist called me back at the end of their check-up and reported that they were both cavity free (again!) and to keep up the good work. The only recommendation she gave was that we start to floss the back molars. We left with two balloons, two new toothbrushes, two trial-sized tubes of toothpaste, and three great big smiles.
Backtracking- September 2nd: T’s Birthday
September 1st-4th: Just before the kids went to get their haircuts (on the 1st), we surprised T with a birthday balloon and a chocolate muffin at his school in honor of his 41st birthday. Even though I’ve taken Buba and Tiny to T’s school on his birthday for the last three years (although, technically, this year we were one day early, because the Labor Day weekend break started on his actual birthday), he always seems to be genuinely surprised. The first year, I clipped a flashy, metallic ballon to each kid (just 18 months old) and had them toddle into his classroom right in the middle of his lesson. The second year (at 2.5), Buba brought a balloon and Tiny carried in a Boston cream donut with a candle on top into the middle of one of his lessons. This year (at 3.5), we arrived at recess time when the room was empty and had to wait 20 minutes for T and his class to return. Buba had a balloon, and Tiny had a double chocolate muffin with a candle on top. As soon as T walked in, both kid started screaming singing Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs. T and his students were quite amused. Over the weekend, we celebrated several times with pizza, sushi, and seafood. The kids and I gave T the gift of alone time the morning of his birthday, as well as the new Dunkin Donuts K-cups. All in all, I think he had a pretty great birthday.
Backtracking- September 1st: Haircuts
It’s been over two weeks (feels like longer) since I’ve written a post here, and it’s been at least a week since I’ve read/commented on posts by my favorite bloggers (sorry). September has just been so, so busy. I’m on my own again with the kids (after having T home all summer), I’ve slightly upped my tutoring hours from last year, I’ve been hard at work organizing events and speakers for my town’s family group, I’m doing my best to keep up with the social scene at preschool (another post on that, perhaps), and up until this past weekend, I was hard at work organizing and tagging Tiny and Buba’s outgrown clothes, toys, and books for the mother of twins consignment sale. Busy, busy, busy.
But within these last three weeks, lots has been going on that I’ve wanted to blog about- things I want to have recorded so I can remember them and share them with Tiny and Buba in the future. I’ve got lots and lots of catching up to do. This is just the beginning…
September 1st- Tiny and Buba both got their hair cut in the salon where I get my hair cut. It was Tiny’s second haircut and Buba’s third. Tiny was excited to have her hair trimmed before starting preschool, but Buba was more apprehensive. He has expressed many times since his first haircut, that he does not want “a big boy haircut” and he does not want “to lose my curlies”. So, we agreed to a trim that would clean up his shaggy do but also allow him to keep the curls. He was very happy with his hair cut, but I’m wishing we’d had it cut shorter. It’s already starting to feel borderline too long again and it’s only been a few weeks. (As an aside, I think the wanting to keep the curls attitude comes from all the compliments Tiny receives on her curls.)
The Giant
Tiny and Buba have a board book collection of very abbreviated fairy tales. It seems their favorite tale in the collection is Jack and the Beanstalk. They ask T to read it over and over, and in the last few weeks have started talking about the giant being in our house. I sometimes catch them tiptoeing around the house whispering, “Don’t wake the giant.” And recently they’ve talked about him hiding under furniture.
Yesterday, Tiny closed the door to the kids’ room and told me that she’d locked the giant in there. I needed to search for something in the kids’ closet, and Tiny allowed me to sneak in quickly as long as I promised not to let the giant out. As I did my searching, I could hear the kids and T talking about the giant. Then T raised his voice a bit and said, “I think I hear the giant stomp, stomp, stomping in the bedroom.” I didn’t think much of it and kept searching. Then he said it again a bit louder,”I think I hear the giant stomp, stomp, stomping in the bedroom.” All was quiet as the kids stopped all their chatter to listen. I continued searching.
The third time it was, “Ah-hem! I think I hear the giant stomp, stomp, stomping in the bedroom.” That was when I finally understood that that was my cue to make a stomp, stomp, stomping sound. And I did.
Tiny flipped out. She started crying and burst through the door to find me digging though the closet. She threw her arms around me and squeezed tight as she yelled, “GIANT! THE GIANT!” T thought she was just being dramatic, but I could tell she was truly very, very scared. I explained to her that there really wasn’t any giant, and that it was just Mommy who had made that stomp, stomp, stomping sound with my foot. I had to reiterate that throughout the remainder of the evening, until she finally seemed to understand and believe what I was saying.
Still, we made sure to throw the giant out of our house just before bedtime. No sense in having him stick around and potentially keep us all from having a good night’s sleep.