The night before the first day of school has arrived. Silas and Veda both have school tomorrow. I am little bit nervous about getting everyone up and out the door in time since Silas has to be at his school by 8:30 am! But I am mostly excited. Excited for them and excited for the tiny little break I will get in the day. Because, hello, breaks are key to a happy and healthy mom. And World Market is calling my name!
We put Silas in a local Montessori school this year and I could write about book about how I was a crying wreck in deciding if we should switch schools, because change is not a good friend of mine. We were wait listed last year (turns out you have to apply before July!) and although they said there wasn't going to be an opening mid year, there was. I had a week to decide if we were going to switch him mid year. First I said no, then I said yes and then after a bucket of tears I said no again. And we kept him where he was and it was a great decision and we already miss his old school, but Veda is there one morning a week so I can get my fix of the sweetest teachers in town.
Why all the tears you ask? I was imagining him going to a new school mid year with a new cubby spot and hook for his coat and a new teacher and a new class and all confused and sad and I just couldn't do it. I was almost at the ugly cry with the empty break up feeling after I said yes and that is when Joe made me say no and he was right all along. So here we are after a summer off of school and the switch seems much more appropriate now and five mornings a week for Silas seems much more doable.
With that, Silas had two mornings of orientation last week since he is a new student. And I, of course, got confused and read the information wrong and was a huge wreck.
He had school 9-10:30 on Wed and 9-11 on Thursday and on one of those mornings was a parent orientation while the kids were in their classrooms. I had Joe's mom set up to watch Veda and everything, but guess who got the dates wrong? I know, story of my life! And I also was a little confused on what orientation meant for Silas. I was thinking that we'd be together for that hour and a half. And no, that was not the case. So Wednesday morning I drop him off and didn't even verbally prep him for time away from me at a new school (we toured it 9 months ago, but that was like a lifetime ago to his little self) I said something to him about me staying and the teacher looked at me like I was nuts. Maybe because I was nuts and I wasn't going to stay. And then all of the other parents were gathering in a room down the hall and I was all, what is going on, don't they know that the orientation is tomorrow? And then it was the story of my life again because I had Veda and she was screaming and crying because SHE wanted to go to school, too, and SHE wanted to play with the new toys. Too much screaming and crying to bring her to parent orientation so I had to leave and in the car I called my friend and told her about the story of my life (and she laughed!) and I almost started crying because, his blanket, Silas is at a new school without me and he didn't even have his blanket with him. He's probably miserable and hates me and thinks I'm a liar.
It was a rough hour and a half as I tried to console Veda about her not going to school with Silas and also trying to do something to kill time fast enough to not think about Silas' blanket that was sitting in the van.
But we all survived. And since I was the only parent that didn't participate in the parent orientation I was the only parent pulling up in the parking lot at 10:30 am and the only parent who saw the class walking back inside from playing outside. And since the teacher had her 5 month old screaming baby in her arms I thought it would be nice of me to open the door for her and the rest of the class, but again, I did it all wrong. They go through the back door and I am supposed to go through the front door so Silas can practice leaving school properly. And it doesn't sound so bad, but it was an awkward moment for sure.
I was thrilled to have him back in my care and I apologized and tried to explain to him that mommy thought she could stay but mommy was confused and then he got confused and I just gave up on the apology and started asking him about his time. He played with puzzles and tools. I asked him if he was sad and he said, "No" in a really confused tone, like, why would I be sad I got to play with toys? Then everything was all better in the world and I realized that we will, in fact, make it and I didn't totally fail.
And just when I knew I didn't fail I picked him up his second day of new student orientation and a little boy said," BYE SILAS!" in a sweet and excited voice. And I melted because Silas has a friend. Hip hip hooray! And if you're not a parent you may not understand, but if you are you might relate in thinking that the most important thing in the world is having a likable kid.
Joe has a friend who has a wife who is a teacher at a very prestigious school in the cities. This friend's wife is not a mom. And she was telling me about how weird she thinks it is that 90% of parents at this fancy shmancy school are more concerned about their kids social interaction than their school performance. And I told her I could totally relate. Because it's so true. It would make me more sad to have a child who struggles to make friends than a child who struggles academically.
So we are off to a good start.
This friend of Silas', Graham, saw us at parent social night on Thursday night and he found Silas right away. They played the whole time on the playground together as the parents talked. It really warmed my heart.
So tomorrow equals me getting both kids up, dressed and fed by 8am and then out the door and to the first school by 8:20. Then I drop Veda off at her school at 9am. She stays for lunch because although my kids seem to think I can do a million things at once, I can't pick up both kids from different schools at 11:30am.
Once the kids figure out that going to bed early is a good thing I think we'll be on a roll!
Here is Silas and his buddy Graham.
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