First Day of School

School is in full swing now and I'm exhausted. Lily catches the bus at 7:10, which means I'm getting her up at 6:30 to get dressed and eat. Most days she gets right out of bed but this week she's been a little slower waking up. She has got to be so tired!

Also, up until this week Jamison has been sneaking into her room in the middle of the night to finish sleeping in her bed. He is such a light sleeper so he would wake up at 6:30, too. Some mornings I heard them talking and playing as early as 6. I think he's sleeping deeper at night since school started.

I drop Jamison off at pre-school at 8:45 so we have a nice time in the morning, just the two of us, for over an hour. Patrick usually has to be woken up at 8:30 for the ride to pre-school - I hate waking up sleeping babies!

Here are pictures from their first day of school, about three weeks ago.

Her bus driver's name is Sue and she is a very patient and understanding lady. I had so many reservations about Lily taking the bus and Sue treated me like I was normal - and I know I was not.

Lily's morning bus stops at another school to pick up some more kids before heading to her school. I'm ok with that. She just has to sit there. But for her afternoon bus she has to catch one bus at her school and then transfer to a second bus at another school. I did not like this arrangement but there wasn't much of a choice.

Lily's school ends at 2:50 which is right in the middle of nap time for both boys (oh yes, Jamison still takes a 2 hour nap everyday. It is a little bit of heaven.) so my mom can't pick her up. If I decide to leave work at 2:30 and pick her up I still have to drive to my moms to get the boys and then head home. I make it home about 4. If Lily takes the bus home she gets dropped off at 3:45 - I can stay a bit later at the office and I save money on gas. Plus, when the weather gets nasty it will be less time on the roads. So it just makes more sense to have her take the bus home, even though it is painful for me to let her do this.

So bus driver Sue heard my concerns and went to the effort to talk to Lily's two afternoon bus drivers so that they would keep an eye on her. She then also found another kid who will walk Lily from one bus to another. I was so impressed that Sue did this for the psycho-emotionally unhinged-mom.

Of course, I had to also have a back up plan. I explained the situation to Lily's school and they matched her up with an older girl who would also make sure she made the afternoon transfer. And then, just because I was already BEYOND mentally unstable, I actually left work that afternoon to go and sit in the transfer school parking lot to WATCH Lily make the transfer. And then I had to beat the bus home so I looked completely normal when it dropped her off.

But now that I went to all that effort with Lily I won't have to do it again for Jamison and Patrick. I promise I won't. Probably.

I forgot to mention that on the first day I DID NOT follow the bus to her school. I think that might be my only saving grace for the bus-stress that I put upon myself. I did meet the bus at the school and walk Lily to her classroom. Her class is difficult to get to and up until this week the school actually had older kids helping the kindergartners find their class.
Me: "Lily, did you remember to say thank you to your helpers today?"
Lily: SILENCE. Long pause. "No, I forgot."
Me: "How can you forget to say thank you? If you got gum for every time you said thank you, do you think you'd remember?"
Lily: "I don't know."
Me: "Why can't I have a polite 5 year old? Why is this so difficult? And what does this say for your manners when your 15?"
Lily: Stares at me. Walks away.

So here's a picture of her getting off her morning bus to go to school. You can barely see her. She's the short, pink blob.

When we got to the classroom her teacher had two little girls ready to meet her. There are 11 kids total in her class and the other 10 all went to pre-school together. So her teachers made sure Lily was welcomed. A new friend - Lenora-was wearing the same outfit. Upon introductions Lenora told us that she would like to be called Nora and that she wanted to know if I bought that outfit at Target, because she loved Target. Yes, I did buy it at Target and I love Target too, Nora.

Lily at her table.

And while I was getting the above shot Jamison wandered around the school and found the pre-school class. He was VERY interested, especially since the kids were in there, but didn't want to venture too close. (note - cast comes off next Friday!)

So tomorrow will be month #2 of school and I think we have a nice schedule going. I feel like we're moving at 100mph all the time but I better get used to it. I have two more in the ranks.