Signing In

Back to School, Back to early bedtimes, Back to the blog. Wow it's been a long time. So long it took me a few tries to find the right password to log in. I feel a little rusty at this but I'm sure it will all come flowing back to me just like riding a bike, which I have been doing lately and I haven't fallen off yet. There is so much to say I couldn't possibly say it all so I'll just start with the present. This will be a little bit of a boring catch up about which each of my kids are doing, more for my record keeping than for yours but if your interested keep reading.

The first few weeks of first grade were rough! Not at school. Emma's doing great at school. It's not until she gets home that the explosions happen. I think sitting in a classroom all day on her best behavior just about took it all out of her. She comes home and throws tantrums reminiscent of her three's and four's. My patience was all but got and things have finally settled down. She really likes her teacher, she loves recess, and has done the monkey bars so much she has blisters all over both hands. I so remember those days! Monkey bar blisters, tether ball bruises on the pinky - oh the memories.

Jacob is in "pre-k" as they call it at his school instead of preschool and he just thinks he's so cool being in "pre-k" this year. He has a really great teacher. He's gotten this really crazy streak lately which is new for him and quite honestly I hope it doesn't last long because I can only handle one crazy kid and stay sane. For those of you who know my kids know which one I'm talking about! I need my mellow middle child to stay mellow.

Ben is just such a funny kid! He loves life and lives it large. He has a great vocabulary and keeps us laughing. He's starting to hit that "I don't want to take a nap stage" and my brain is screaming "noooooo" I'm not ready for that yet!

All my favorite Fall shows have started and I even have missed the first episode of most of them. Usually I"m on pins and needles and Fall line up doesn't start soon enough for me. But this year I was like "what??? it's already Fall and I've missed my shows?" I swear summer flew by. I loved summer this year. We traveled, we relaxed, we swam, we slept in sometimes (by sleep in I mean 7:30), and we stayed up late. I didn't stress about bedtime or dinnertime and all that. We just lived Joi de Vivre and it was great. I was sad to see it come to an end. I guess since it was our first real school year it was our first real summer. When you're a mom of little ones seasons don't really mean a whole lot except for the holidays. (especially in So Cal where the weather doesn't even change). You don't have to plan vacations by a calender or schedule dr. appt's for after school hours. It's so nice. It takes getting used to have school age kids - the whole ballgame changes. Now I have to plan vacations at the same time everyone else does.
At first I was really bummed for school to be starting, having to run a routine again, run kids here and there, and lose the carefree - ness of summer. But now that we're in the swing of things I'm actually starting to enjoy start of a new season. So Happy Yom Kippur (we got it off school), Columbus Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving and here's to a Fall full of joy and laughter. What are you going to be for Halloween this year?