So, the first thing you should know is that the Tooth Fairy is susceptible to strep throat, just like the rest of us. In fact, R’s Tooth Fairy seems to have come down with it at the same precise time that I did. Rollie lost another tooth on Monday night (after he went to bed, of course, prompting me to get up off the couch and deal with blood and teeth and find the damn tooth pillow while swallowing felt like eating glass). I warned him that there was a chance she wouldn’t know that night that he had lost a tooth, since it was so late, and that she might not show. Well, she didn’t show last night either.
Rollie’s Tooth Fairy sucks. Hopefully, she will get her shit together and make an appearance this evening.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s discuss this whole back-to-school thing. Yes, my county in GA went back to school. On August 8th. Yes, that August 8th, the one that is a full month before I used to go to school back in the olden days.
R. started second grade. I am the parent of a second grader. When I say it, it sounds like I am talking about some person I don’t even know. Who let me be responsible for a 2nd grader? Shoot, I still can’t believe they let me and Todd walk out of Northside with, not one, but TWO of these creatures. We just got in the car and drove off with them! No certificate or license or anything!
And the Tills. . . the sweet baby girl, Tiller. Tills started Kindergarten on Monday.
The first day was rough. When I left her classroom the teacher was trying to get a handle on the new students and calling for a translator. Tiller was sitting at her desk alone, in tears. (I may have shed a tear or two myself.) Our school gained a ton of new students through redistricting, many whose parents don’t speak English. We gained so many students that they hadn’t even hired a new teacher for the new Kindergarten class Tiller is in, so she has a sub this week. (Rumor has it the new teacher, who lives in our neighborhood and is a friend, starts tomorrow.) Not the perfect start to the week, but the sub is a retired veteran K teacher, and by the second day, she had that ship righted and set on a course.
Rollie has a male homeroom teacher for the first time. I am interested to see how his mostly-male class responds to having a man teaching them. Already, he seems like he is very active in his teaching, which i think these wild boys need. They had math class outside the first day!
Another change this year? The kids are in aftercare. I decided that i was ready to go back to work full-time, or at least take on more hours contracting. (Wink wink, nudge nudge – shoot me an email if you have the hookup on a dream job you think might be a good fit for me. You know – flexible, interesting, challenging, and financially rewarding! Is that so much to ask?)
So, starting next week, I am going to be looking for more work in earnest. I have been spoiled and lucky to have great, near-constant teleworking experiences for the last eight years, but i am ready to add more work to my plate. I feel like this is a brand new chapter in my life. My babies are not babies anymore. I am not a “new mom.” Wrapping my head around this has been pretty wild. I didn’t realize how much of my life revolved around keeping two kids alive for six and eight years! But they don’t need me quite as much as they did even two years ago, and I know it. I need to find other things to put my energies into. I have taken the PTA newsletter off my plate this year.
I am still putting together the quarterly Evansdale Education Foundation newsletter, though, and serving on the organizing board. That has been a very rewarding experience. Have a bunch of money bags lying around? Please donate to the foundation here! (Or just look at the newsletter to see some of the awesome stuff we funded this year – a new EIP teacher for the school, and gifted certification and guided math training for teachers. We raised about $50,000 in our first year. Amazing, since it started out as about 15 people sitting around every Sunday night at someone’s house, trying to figure out how to sustain and improve quality of education at the elementary school.) Whoa. Digression.
So, I was worried that the day, with aftercare, would just be too much for my five-year-old girl. But Tiller LOVED her first day of school. I thought she would be happy to see me when I picked them up that first day, and she was. She came walking out of the cafeteria and saw me, cracked a big smile, exclaimed, “mama!” and ran full speed into my arms! And then I said for her to get her bag and she burst into tears and said she didn’t want to go yet. I am glad that she is going to like it there and that I won’t feel bad about them being there all day, but I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a little tiny piece of me that wishes that she was going to miss our lunches and errands as much as I will.
And of course, Rollie was all, “Mom! Why did you pick us up so early?!” (It was after five.) “I was playing dodgeball!”
I missed you, too, Buddy.
So, i think this is a big year for us, and will be a big adjustment. But I’m starting to see that most change is good, and even if it isn’t, I might as well embrace it, because it is really the only thing you can count on in this life.
Still, how can this:
And this:
Become this?
We are going to make you love us and then leave you, Mama.
