Which is why I can recognized with confidence that in the last week I didn't pace myself.
I bolted out of the end of summer gates at a rookie pace that I could not maintain on Jonah's first day of school last week. Mom's with one or two kids would be considered sprinters in this game (no less challenging, but different muscle building required). When training for this event I had not taken into account that although I only have 2 children starting school this month, the other children at home are still... at home... equally sleep deprived from going to bed at the later summer time and waking up at the early school time and still at home... all cranky day long. As a result, my category was better qualified as long distance. A very long distance of adjustment and re-sleep training that I tried to run like it was a 100m dash. The first day of school was only the warm up lap.
This is particularly ironic, because in the end my first day of school enthusiasm rating paired directly opposite each poor little dear's personalities. When I was overly excited, Jonah was ready to punch me in the face. When I was too tired even fake mild excitement, Sienna was looking for a half time show rally.
Which brings us to Sienna's very first day of kindergarten...
My eager, responsible and brave Sienna must have slept with one eye open and one toe in her uniform. When the dawn of her first day of kindergarten broke she was awake, fully dressed and breathing a minty fragrant "good morning" into my should-still-be-dreaming face at 5:40 am.
Sienna: "Hi Mommy, Can you please do my hair? I have been thinking half pony tail with the uniform bow. That's cute right?"
Me: "zzzzzzz"
Jonah: "It's time to be awake Mommy! We're going to make breakfast!"
Am I dreaming? Someone is making me breakfast. Oh that sounds wonderful. Ask if we can get a late check out time?
Sienna: "Mom, your phone alarm really didn't work. It's time to get up."
Me: Ok, not dreaming. "Jonah, you're hurting Mommy's shin. Please step off my leg, so I can see if we're late!"
5:37 am
And looks like we'll never know if I figured out how to make my phone alarm work, because we beat it to the 6:00 am punch!
If this were actually a race this would be called a false start and the young opponents would be disqualified....
But since it's motherhood and there's no way to disqualify your kids from being kids, I just get penalties by way of disaster clean ups caused by kids roaming my house without direct supervision for 2 seconds.
So off we were into the soft yellow, orange, and pink yonder sunrise to greet the first day of kindergarten ahead. Jonah made good on his promise to get us breakfast. Yogurt, fruit and hot dogs. No one ate the hot dogs, but I commend him for his unique spin on breakfast. Sienna said she wanted just a banana and plain toast so she didn't get any food on her uniform, which she explained as I stared into the beige smear of food on her brand school blouse. The kids could eat a piece of plain, raw celery and stain themselves with it.
After breakfast Sienna reviewed the contents of her backpack for the millionth time, which included 68 various forms of writing utensils (pencils, crayons, markers etc), each of which she had individually marked with her initials just in case they got mixed up with someone else's. This was actually her teacher's request, but I would've never imagined that a 5 year old would eagerly spend so much time doing this herself. Writing that tiny on a rounded surface is difficult for adult, but for someone with budding fine motor skills... wow.... let's just say she's a permanent member in my type A club for that one!
As she performed her last inspection, I did my usual first day interviewing...
Me: "So what are you most excited about for school this year?'
Sienna: "Going to mass every day!!"
Me: "Really! That's great! Why are you so excited to go to mass with your class?"
Sienna: "Maaaa-ooom, because we get to see Jesus at our school every day."
This is the moment I knew I had to record this day in a safe place juuuuust in case we ever need reminding of why we go to mass in say 10 years??
And all that brought us to about 6:45 am
Which was exactly our problem. We were dressed, fed and ready to go 30 minutes early.
We were going to be late.
As predicted, the entire 1st day of school, on-time parent population watched us as we schlepped up to her classroom door with not 10 seconds to spare. I'd like to pause for a moment of thanks to the nearby domestic disturbances and coffee stops that kept law enforcement off our speeded path. Before this day I never knew the mommy missle had so much pick up.
Poor thing feels exactly the same way I do about being late.
The hair tucking. No, please not the hair tucking. I'm so sorry! I tried so hard to get us in the car on time. It was mostly your brothers' faults for pooping, spitting up and hiding shoes in the 11th hour that we have to blame.
Like me, she would rather NOT go somewhere at all than show up late to it.
Her excitement melted away to unease and nervousness as all eyes watched us find her seat.
Right smack dab in the middle!
(Watch out for the fake cheetah petting photo bomb by Jonah)
And in between two of her friends from preschool.
The perfect seat!
Before I could click and another picture, she ran over to squeeze me so tight and said "Ok Mom, you can go now! I love you more than anyone in the whole world."
With that we left, came back home for Jonah to take his bus to school and were suddenly left all alone. Mommy with the little big brother and the baby brother.
There were 3 in the bed and the Wild One said "Roll over" so we all rolled over and one drove off
There were 2 in the bed and the big little one said "when are they coming home?"
Cute cute cute!!
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