Hiya!
Several of you sweetly messaged over summer to see how we were doing while things were quiet on the blogfront and I appreciate you dearly for caring! There has, as always, been lots of life going on... any spare moments were spent recovering instead of writing.
Some of the season was dreamy and fantastical and other parts... you know, not.
We have made lots of forward progress in adoption recovery in these last months, for sure. Obviously, the change in season brought a change in routine, change in schedule, change in kinda everything. Normally, that's a very welcome change, but in post-adoption war, that's a tough adjustment for some soldiers. We fought the good summer fight and here we are, charging on into a new school year.
Last year we had four kids in one school, this year we have five kids in four schools!
It's going to take us a while to find our groove I think. We leave an hour earlier to start drop offs and Monday-Tuesday I spent nearly two hours in pick-up lines. Gross. Until now, we have always been home for dinner together every night. So far this year, we just cannot pull it off. Lots of changes, Old Max, lots of changes.
Layla started MIDDLE SCHOOL.
(
Mufasaaa....
shiver).
She was a happy blend of nervous/excited that got her up at 4:30AM for several episodes of 'I Love Lucy' before breakfast... {like mother, like daughter}. She definitely came home a little stressed after the first day. She did have a beautiful, round even-numbered locker combination but the dern thing kept getting stuck. Between that and trying to find all her classes, she was a smidge overwhelmed. She came home to tell me she thinks she inherited my (actual, clinically diagnosed) OCD afterall as she found herself arranging her school supplies all day just to feel a sense of control. As expected, she got the hang of it after a few days and the school supplies were once again scattered about freely in her new, functioning locker with it's unfortunate odd-numbers.
I feel certain she will do fantastic as she is a special kind of rock star.
Brynn is taking on third grade and is off to a wonderful start!
Too bad she's such a plain little girl {PSYCH!} I have already gotten a call from her teacher about how attentive, well-mannered, and sweet she's been. Make no bones about it, third grade is tough stuff- but this girl never backs down from a challenge! Our hope is that she gains academic confidence and continues to give it her all. It's one of my favorite things about her. Back to school for her also means back to dance! She cannot get enough and it's a good thing because her schedule is fully loaded this year. Looking forward to seeing her grow in every way.
CALE.
Guys. Look at his face. Most of you know it's been a challenge trying to find the right fit for Cale and ya'll, I think we've done it. We have sort of held our breath this week, not knowing how he would adjust to a new school and a new schedule but HE IS SO HAPPY. Initially, he wasn't thrilled about wearing a uniform but he quickly figured out that it made his mornings easier and that he looks rather handsome. On the second day of school, he had a doctor appointment and he was legitimately bummed about what he might be missing. He begged me to make them hurry so he could get to school! THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED EVER. He is happy every day when we pick him up and every morning when it's time to go back.
This is him dancing on the front porch before school this morning. Just shaking his groove thang for no reason at all. I can count all zero times that this has happened before.
He is also playing football for the first time, which requires a serious time commitment (which we somehow didn't realize when we initially agreed to it) and gets everyone to bed later than we are used to. He
has to be exhausted, but he has honestly handled this week better than any of us. Plus, he's sleeping soundly. Last year, he did not sleep. At all.
His days are structured and predictable and he loves all of it. AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID AMEN.
"Roman is in second grade!"
That's what he squealed about 72 times Monday and Tuesday. Cutie.
He seems really happy with his teacher and his lunchbox, but by Wednesday all the evening running around had caught up with him. He was asking for new blood-- even though it isn't time yet-- because he automatically assumes when he's
that tired, he must need fresh blood. He shut down big time this morning and had all the grumps. It occurred to me how drastically different this all was for him especially, even though he has quietly taxied through it all. All summer, he was home and stuck to me like glue- this week, he was suddenly in school all day long and then shuffled between extracurriculars all night. We have about 15 mins of time every day in between the first two drop offs and the next two- which is great because Brynn is never quite ready and we always forget something. Today, I brought him back inside to snuggle. I realized he had been sort of neglected this week and he just needed to slow down for a minute. Sweet little buddy. Cheered him right up. That and the promise he could sleep in tomorrow!
Now about all this "free time" people seem to think I now have.... LAUGH.
Anna Gray doesn't start back to her school until next week. I, too, was certain she and I would get EVERYTHING done this week with all the bigs back in school.
First of all, she's is not in a very "still" phase of life right now which is fun little challenge everywhere we go.
I kid you not, I buckled her into her highchair with a snack, took down a load of laundry, and came back up to find shattered glass in the floor, closed caption turned on Sesame St, and her wearing nothing but a bow. Still bucked into her high chair.
That's her claiming "accident".
Sure. I accidentally strip myself naked all the time.
She has been dragged all over creation this week too, sweet baby. I worked last night and this morning, she has both arms and legs wrapped around me with her face pressed against mine saying, "I got you. I got you."
It really has been the craziest week. I have not had a moment to spare and we are only home today because I had an event cancel at the last minute. I never dreamed I would be more exhausted once they were out of the house all day.
Slowly but surely, we will adjust. Probably just in time for it to all change again. But we're good. We are good. In a "Eating dinner at 8PM, wearing yesterday's mascara, broken washing machine, can't find the keys that are in my hand, fell asleep sitting upright in my tennis shoes" way, we are really good.
