kristaphillips It is exactly ONE MONTH until school starts back up for my kids.
I’m not gonna lie. While I LOVE LOVE LOVE spending time with my girls… I welcome the arrival of the school bus. By the end of summer, everyone is usually a bit cranky, very bored, and ready for some built in distraction. I hear other mothers getting so sad about having their kids go back to school… and I feel a wee bit of guilt. Does being gleeful about school make me a bad mom??? I hope not!
While we’ve had lots of fun this summer, but between all the crazy schedules and Mommy working some each week, there has been way too much sit-in-front-of-the-TV-or-video-game going on. I take full blame for this.
2 of my 3 are SO EXCITED about school starting. The other is not quite so fond of school, so is pouting about the matter. She had a rough year last year… 3rd grade is a HARD year… so I’m hoping that 4th grade she’ll hit the ground running and do GREAT!
TODAY though… I get an interesting new experience.
I get to go to SCHOOL for ANNABELLE!
Today is her IEP meeting… the plan (at the moment, subject to change) is for her to begin school this fall in the Early Childhood program. It is a special program for children with various special needs who are severely behind in many areas. They have a 50% peer group, meaning 50% of the kids do not have special education needs so they can be a good influence and role model on those that do. This mommy LOVES that, because I’ve been wanting Annabelle to spend more time with kids here age for a while!
And, yes, a little part of me is EXCITED about that too. I think it will be a fantastic experience for my little girl, and I’m really hoping that it will help her “catch” up a wee bit!
It’s funny. I always figured with my “last” baby, that I’d get super weepy with every milestone they met… because we all know how FAST time flies.
But with Annabelle, my viewpoint is different. That first year, we all silently wondered if she’d ever get a chance to meet those milestones. So when each one comes, instead of it being bittersweet, it is a massive celebration.
Sometimes it’s little things. Like when she learned to turn on and off light switches. Our house may catch on fire because she enjoys flipping them on and off and on and off and on and off in rapid succession… but it makes me smile. And it is SO hard to tell her no!!
Or her first trip to the movie theater with the church on Sunday to watch Monsters U. Instead of watching the movie, she spent the WHOLE time walking up and down the stairs… beating movie watchers in the head…. eating popcorn off the floor… and getting her foot stuck between the stairs and the seat and screaming bloody-murder. It was grand fun! HA! She also MET A PT GOAL there though. All her going up and down stairs? She got to where she would go UP them with NO RAILING! This is a HUGE step that she has never done, her legs just haven’t been strong enough. I about cried right there in the theater!
And sometimes it’s big things, like, her 3rd birthday coming up in a few weeks. OH MY GOSH, my baby is going to be THREE.
So yes, we celebrate Annabelle’s milestones. There probably won’t be a tearful momma on that first day of school. I will be grinning ear to ear, so proud of my baby, of my fighter.
What about other mommas? Do you all celebrate your kids milestones, or are they a bit tearful? And am I the only crazy Momma ready for school to start back up?????
Yeah for Annabelle! Climbing the stairs with no rails, BIG accomplishment.
I KNOW!!!!! I literally almost screamed and cried in the middle of the movie:-) granted, the steps were shorter than most, but still. It was exciting!
When Andrew went to preschool for the first time, he was my youngest. I had not been blessed with Nikolas or Simon yet and so I was under the impression that he may have been my baby, my last. I was a little tearful and quite honestly had no idea what I would do with my free time…..This year, Nikolas starts Kindergarten and will be away from me for the whole day/5 days a week. (preschool for him was only 4 hours/4 days a week) Adding to that milestone, Simon will start his first preschool program and be away from me for 2 hours a day/4 days a week. I'm nowhere near as sad and tearful as I was with Andrew leaving! I am having a little trouble with all the milestones being hit at once (since Trevor is also starting high school), but overall, I'm just one heck of a proud momma!!!!
I know you are!!!! And yeah… not thinking about high school. My oldest will be there in two years. There WILL be tears. And most likely a mid-life crisis from yours truely.
Everyone told me that the milestones your second baby reaces are not as exciting and celebrated as when your first kid did it, and many friends still are in awe that we celebrate each and every one of John's milesones. Since he has HLHS it put things into a much different perspective. I LOVE big birthdayparties for the kids and family celebration when they accomplish something, so instead of sadness on John's fist day of school, I'm sure that I will be so excited to meet that day !
Exactly, Kathy!!!!!! Each milestone is SO huge!!!!
Yay for milestones! Hard to believe Annabelle is going to be three!
I know… THREE YEARS OLD!!!! I need pinched!!
Hi I'm Heather! Please email me when you get a chance, I have a question about your blog! LifesABanquet1(at)gmail.com
The last day of preschool for my son this year I came home and cried, because as I looked around at his scattered toys and unmade bed, I realized it was true what they say, that these times will go by too fast. But I'm excited for him to start kindergarten in the fall, excited for his sake, to make friends and be learning. We have an early childhood program here too that I've seen some of, and they do a great job! I'm sure you'll both love it!