Let's just start this by saying it's a good thing we're keeping Livi at preschool this year instead of going on to kindergarten because girlfriend cannot stay clothed. She knows all her letters and sounds, and numbers, and all manner of educational trivia, but her tiny buns literally spend half the day in the fresh air. I'm pretty sure having pants on is a requisite for public kindergarten (I'm confident there is some Montessorri school where pants are optional...I maybe should have done my research) so for now it's a good thing she'll be at our church where they luckily love her enough to laugh at her penchant for nudity. (Please let this be the year she stops this particular habit)
I don't know about my littles, but I'm somewhere between elation and panic at school starting again. Elation because YAY, we love each other but there has been enough togetherness to sink a ship around here, and we're ready for some separation, structure, and bathing once a day.
Panic because GETTING UP EARLY. Seriously, I am not even going to tell you how late I have slept on occasion during this summer break. You would throw your shoe at the computer screen, especially if you have a child under two who won't sleep. Let's just say this: my kids wake up, eat a breakfast bar, and entertain themselves. I am left to wake up whenever I want, which is really the worst because it's just going to be sad when that alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m. in two weeks. SIX THIRTY. Ugh.
Elation because I am so excited for the twins to start at Cambridge in first grade. First grade was a year I loved to teach, and I am so ready to see them do their thing. They are lovers of books (thank you, Jesus) and I hope that always sticks.
Panic because I hate packing school lunches. Mostly because there is nothing that sets my hair on edge like unpacking a lunchbox and finding a hot apple with one bite out of it. ONE BITE. How many times we have to have the "if you aren't going to eat your apple, don't bite it at all" conversation is beyond me.
Elation because I need a routine. I am a little too loosey goosey in the summer, so before I transition fully into a feckless fraternity boy who needs a haircut, I gotta get back into the real world.
Panic because I still have two things on their school supply list I need to track down before the first day. I know, I know, I really dropped the ball by not buying the pre-packaged school supplies from the PTO. I'd like to say I had a reason for not ordering the pack by the deadline, but if we're being honest, it was probably because I was sleeping in and lumbering around with my coffee watching HGTV until noon on the deadline day. I thought it would be kind of fun....who doesn't love school supply shopping? Crayons that smell amazing? Brand new everything? Let me tell you when school supply shopping took a really nasty turn...when EVERY SINGLE ITEM on their list had a specific BRAND listed next to it. I mean, I taught kindergarten, so I know that Crayola crayons are VASTLY better quality than the ones that come with the coloring menu at a Mexican restaurant, but spiral notebooks? Unless the papermaking technology has changed in the nine years since I have taught school, I am pretty confident in saying that a spiral notebook is a spiral notebook. I'm fairly sure of it. I tried to play by their rules and get the correct brand name for every item, but after shopping HEB, Target, Wal Mart AND Office Max and still not finding the right items, and then loading an Amazon shopping cart only to notice that the shipping was $43 dollars for six items, I gave up. Sorry, first grade teachers. Please do not hate my children because they are erasing with the Pink Pearl eraser and not the Staples brand, organic, latex free pink eraser. It's their momma that is the lawless rule breaker, not them.
Any who.... we're conflicted about school starting, but we're ready. In the words of Sis "I hope there are nice girls in my class, and not girls like that one in my Pre K class who told everyone they had hairy arms." Word up, sister.
