First Day of School

I'm crying a little inside because summer is over.  And, let me tell you, we had a GOOD summer.  Especially compared to last year.  The girls were eager to start and I was a little eager to send them.  The hardest part for us this year was waking up!  All three kids figured out how to sleep in over the summer.  They spoiled me. 

We had meet the teacher last week.  Mykah was SO excited to see who her teacher was.  Karsyn was more excited to see if she had any of her friends in her class.  She doesn't, but she's being a trooper.  She makes new friends pretty easily, so I'm excited for her. 

Normally, I do a back-to-school photo shoot.  But to add to my "laziest mom of the year" award, I didn't do it.  The plans are to do it this weekend.  Better late than never, right?

The first day of school came.  8.25.14

Karsyn is big in 2nd grade.  She's excited to be in the portables and her teacher is Mrs. Yorek.

Mykah is excited to be in class with her friend Jayden.  She's in Mrs. Krenek's class, which I was super excited about.

 

I had to share this next one.  Mykah keeps saying she wants to be a rockstar.  I had her give me her best rockstar pose.  Clearly, we need to work on that. 

And then they were tired of me taking their pictures.  Hence the reason I don't get too eager to have photo shoots with them.

They came home and reported great days.  Mykah was a little more peppy than I expected.  She was in high gear and excited to tell me about her day.

. my school girl .

i am an emotional person.  1000%.  so i have a feeling there will be lots of blog posts in the coming weeks where i just ramble.  and it'll be emotional.  cause that's how i am.  and, right now, that's how i get through the days.  baby blues are killin' me this go 'round.  

ok, so ... the blog, and lots of other things, took a back seat during my pregnancy.  it makes me sad that i wasn't able to keep up with it, but i could hardly keep up with my own kids!  pregnancy makes me very lazy and i had every right to be, i'd say.  growing a baby is hard work!  after my last two pregnancies have ended, life resumes, and i finally start to feeling better, i always have a guilty feeling that lingers.  guilty because i basically lost 9 months of life with the child i already had.  for 9 months mama didn't feel good.  for 9 months mama was tired.  i can't imagine what went through their heads for those 9 months.  surely they noticed that mama wasn't the same.  but did they understand and were they okay with it?  those are the things i think of today.  i missed lots of precious time with my girls these past 8 months, this time around.  and now i feel like i have to catch up.

remember, karsyn started kindergarten?!  do you know how hard this year has been on this mama's heart?!?  to have my first baby start kindergarten AND have a new baby all close to the same time.  my heart has ached, all for good reasons, for the last 2 months.  i just thought karsyn starting kinder did me in.  then jaxton comes along.  and now i have 3 blessings.  ok, we won't go into all of that again.

karsyn has done so good in school.  i must say, she has already grown so much in the last month that she's been in school.  seriously.  grown tremendously.  she no longer lets me drop her off at the front door.  we've backed up to the sidewalk now.  "just drop me off here" she tells me every day.  and, yes, i'm the mom that parks it and watches her walk all the way inside the door.  that's me. 

she did miss one day for being sick.  i debated.  debated hard on whether or not to send her that day.  it was a monday.  mykah had been sick with a lower respiratory infection the week before and karsyn caught it by that weekend.  she never had fever, but was coughing up lungs for a few days.  i spoke with a sweet friend who was a school nurse and said to keep her home!  several said that she won't get behind in kindergarten for missing one day.  so, i kept her home.  we actually ended up at the doctor that day and got medicine, so thankfully she was better right away.  she acted perfectly fine the rest of the day, so she certainly went back to school the following day.

she missed the day jaxton was born as well.  who wouldn't have?  although we didn't know for sure what time he would arrive, she had it set in her mind the day before that she would be at the hospital and not at school.

then, the day i never even thought of explaining.  daddy went to pick her up last week and she was so sad.  "i didn't have a good day."  he even had to carry her inside when they got home.  i had no clue what could have caused her to be so sad.  and i never even thought about telling her this could happen.  she had a substitute teacher.  mrs. mosely was not at school.  and it broke her sweet little heart.  my girl is definitely a girl of routine and planning.  she has to know about things before they happen.  i never once thought about preparing her for this kind of day.  where the teacher would be out.  and it broke her heart.  thankfully, mrs. mosely returned the next day and all was right in the world once again.  i did have a talk with her though about how that could happen, so maybe next time won't be so traumatic.

and ... a day i actually prepared for ... she wanted to eat in the cafeteria.  GASP!  okay.  okay.  it's not life-threatening.  but she's always insisted that she takes her lunch.  now all of a sudden she wants to eat there.  it's not that huge of a deal.  my mom is a food nutrition director for the school district i grew up in.  i know how cafeterias work, for the most part.  and i know what kind of food they serve.  my hesitation was that i know what kind of food my mom's cafeterias serve.  not ours.  so i was hesitant.  but i let go.  and she loves it.  we check the menu daily and she decides if she wants to eat that or not.  and i'm ok with it right now.  our mornings are crazy enough with a new baby in the house.  it's just one of those things i chose not to fight.  plus, nana went to eat with her one day last week and gave us the "nana approval".  

. preparing for kindergarten .

i cannot believe how fast the new school year has come.  it's ALL new to us as karsyn is our first to go on this journey.  it's been full of ups and downs.  fear of the unknown, rather.  and this mama has come unglued once or twice in the process.  big, fat, ugly tears we're talking.  and the pregnancy hormones don't help a lick. 

karsyn is definitely our "school girl".  she will excel i imagine and be top of her class.  she's a perfectionist and expects only the best of herself.  i'm very thankful for that.  she loves school stuff.  writing.  coloring.  cutting.  learning.  so we don't worry at all about the school aspect of it all.  she'll do wonderfully.  what i worry about is that she's quiet.  she probably won't ask if she has a question.  or ask if she needs help.  or ask if she needs to use the restroom.  she may surprise us though.  she's done that a time or two. 

and the countdown for kindergarten began. 

 

i probably didn't even need a countdown for this kid.  once she heard the first number, she had it going from then on.  she's a planner.  and she's a numbers kind of girl.  she likes to know when it's all gonna happen and in what order.  so the second i told her it was 23 days until kindergarten, we heard the whole countdown each day afterwards.

nana and papa came one weekend and took her school shopping.  they may never volunteer for that again, but we were so very thankful.  she got all of her school supplies, backpack, lunchbox, and even some clothes.  that's when it got real.  and she's been excited every step of the way.

as the days went on, it became even more real.  we got a phone call from her teacher who wanted to schedule a time for a home visit.  she came that next day and we had a nice visit.  she's super nice and i really think it helped the whole process for karsyn.  she was able to see a face and meet her twice before school even starts.

 

meet the teacher night was exciting.  we were able to see her teacher yet again and also take all of her school supplies and see where her desk will be.  her school is the smallest elementary in the district, which is why we love it.  it was so easy to walk in and find her class. 

 

 

we received even more information that evening and was able to ask questions about little things that we were unsure of, which made this mama's worried heart take a breather.  there's still some worry there, of course.  i've been her teacher.  i've been her supporter.  i've been her helper.  i've been the one she runs to all day, every single day.  and now i won't be there for 7 hours of her day.  that stresses me out!  what if she needs me?  what if she needs help opening her drink at lunch? 

 

i know the answers to all of these.  i know it's always harder on the mama than it is on the child.  and i'm sure she'll do just fine without me by her side.  we're so excited to see how she grows this year.  to see what kind of girl she turns into.  what new things she'll learn.  and to pray even harder that she knows who she is and what we've taught her.