Back to School

I let out a sigh of relief last Wednesday (along with many other moms).  It's back to school time.

Here is just a sample of a *regular* day for me.

7:00 am-7:30 am - start getting Nick ready for school.  This can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes depending on his mood that morning.  He's not a morning person (just like me).
7:30-8:00 Breakfast and cartoons, pack the finals things in the backpack (lunch, snacks etc)

8:15 - Bryan drops him off at school/I start working.
8:15-9:00 - check emails, clean up the desk from the intensive work schedule from the night before
9:00-12:00 pm - Fill orders
12:00-12:30 LUNCH - lunch really means scrounge for something in the kitchen that resembles a meal and then eat it front of the computer while calling manufacturers, answering emails, getting some other computer work done.
12:30-4:30 Fill more order, unpack product if it comes in.
4:30-9:00 PM - shower, pick up Nick from school, dinner, bath, watch a Little Einsteins, maybe read a book, bedtime.

9:30 - 2:00 am?? - wake myself up from a quick power nap and its back to work for me.  Every night is different.  I stay up as late as 4 am.  So for any internationals wondering why you get emails from me at weird hours.....now you know.  I'm UP!

The Summer Schedule was different because the kid was home.  Instead of me getting 5 good days of work in during the week, I got 3.  Summer Camp was only Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  So he was home with me a total of 4 days during the week which really messes up the carefully scheduled day.

It feels GREAT to be back to the regular schedule because Summer, quite frankly, wore me out!  I don't think I relaxed much.

To celebrate, I dropped him off at school, made sure he was good and then rushed off to get a pedicure.  These poor feet needed a little TLC.  (Of course, the pedicure was interrupted with this horrible news......)

Anyway, here are pictures from Meet The Teacher Day and the First Day of School.

Meeting Miss Gayle (the snake is our latest obsession)

Miss Gayle wanted to assess where he was in writing and recognizing words.  She had him draw a picture of himself AND write his name on it.

 Then he had to find his cubby on his own and put the picture in it.  He found it on the first try.  My little boy is growing up!  He can almost write his name.  I think there was some confusion because we call him Nick and the teacher was trying to get him to write Nicholas.  So the word is kind of a combination of Nick/Nicholas.  We're going with NICK and Miss Gayle will be working with him to go with that.

 Coincidentally, his cubby is right next to Skye.  (Thats his school wife.)  They've been going to school together for over 2 years.  First at Tutor Time and now at the new school.  In fact, it was Skye's mom who told us she was making the move.  We found out later that a bunch of kids (8 at the time, but more now) have all made the jump to the same school.  We noticed a lot of familiar faces last September when he started.  These two are inseparable - its funny.  The school staff jokes that they are a married couple.  They sit next to each other during circle time, snacks and lunches and even nap on cots next to each other.  If someone puts them in places where they aren't near each other, they switch places with kids to get closer.  And I've heard they argue like a married couple too......  All I know is that Skye and Keshav are the two Nick talks about most.  This year, Keshav got put in the other 4 class so the trifecta has been broken up......

 After we met Miss Gayle, we took him out to breakfast.  He loves the breakfasts at McDonalds and its a treat for him.  (Don't worry, he didn't eat that entire meal - dad helped him.)

Whats with the goofy smiles?  Moms, please tell me this is a phase and he'll grow out of it.  I have so many pictures with a goofy face instead of the smile I'm used too.........

*Official* First Day of School

His Cubby

Another one with Miss Gayle.

Circle Time

His little workcenter book.  We have so many of these at home but this just makes it official! He goes to school!

I started a tradition with him last year.  Every Monday, I pick him up from school and we have a 'date'.  Usually just Nick and I.  We have dinner and get ice cream.  I'm trying to get him to tell me more about school - what he does, his friends, his teacher, what he learned etc.  So I took him out to dinner after the first day - Flame Broiler and Cherry on Top.

 Thats pudding on his nose.  I got most of it off but this spot was dried on.  Must remember to send wipes with his afternoon snack.....

Mom got a little treat too - did someone say Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks?

What did I learn at the First Day Debriefing?

He likes Miss Gayle.
He is happy to have Skye in his class again.
He played outside.
He has Mr. Myers for PE (Mr. Myers is kind of a celebrity at the school.  He's coaches most of the sports teams at the school and all of the PE classes.  This year, Nick gets PE.  Mr. Myers loves Nick because Nick LOVES sports.  I mean, he LOVES sports.  And he's good too.  Mr. Myers has, on several occasions, pulled me aside and told me that Nick is very coordinated and does very well when he sneaks up onto the upper field when he's coaching and plays with the older kids.)
He misses Miss Kim - his PS3 teacher
He's trying to spell his name out loud


And thats all I got.  Based on the amount of paint stains on his person, I'm going to assume painting was involved in the schedule.  Anyone else have some fun Back To School stories?