Watch Out World

It was this girl's first day of school today. To say she was excited would be an understatement. I think we've been counting down this day since the start of school last year. Only then it seemed so far away that my little blond-haired girl would actually be going. I don't know how that passed so quickly. We were counting by events (Halloween, Christmas, birthdays, Easter, summer, then school), then it came down to months, then weeks, then we made a daily chain to count down the final 9 days (only because she officially started school 9 days after her sisters). 

And today she's gone.

I'll admit, I was a bit teary...but I always am sending off a kid for the first time. 

As excited as she was she was also nervous. She was nervous about not knowing what her teacher is saying, not knowing when it is time to eat or play, of making a mistake and getting in trouble, about being sent to the principal's office (thank-you older sisters), of not having anyone to play with. How can a four-year-old have so many concerns? The last couple of days she's been asking me how nervous I am. 

I overheard this conversation between her and Evelyn this morning as they were getting ready:

Audrée: "What if everyone laughs at me?"

Evelyn: "Are you kidding? You are beautiful. All the boys in your class are going to want to marry you."

Audrée: "But what if I do something then everyone laughs?"

Evelyn: "Don't worry. You tell them I'm your older sister and then find me and I'll make sure they stop."

What a blessing it is to have older sisters! Older sisters who were just as excited as she was that she finally was coming to school with them. As the bus pulled away from the house I saw them all squeezed into one seat with Audree tucked in the middle. They were struggling to find a place to put all their bags. 

The house was eerily quiet as Lucienne and I came back in (although she rectified that soon enough). I don't even want to think about the day I'll be walking into the house all alone. Until then, Lulu and I will hold down the fort until their return at 3:30. This should be interesting...

A Whole Lot of Hair

First day of school tomorrow for Audrée...very exciting!!! I thought we'd start off on the right foot and send her in clean. As she was finishing up her bath she said, "Mom, I want my hair to be beautiful tomorrow, can you put it in buns so it's very curly?"

I think she may end up with a complex about those golden locks of hers, but only time will tell. I've already caught her asking a family friend if he thought her hair was beautiful. As a father of three boys and a one year old girl (who is working on growing a beautiful mane) he dutifully nodded. She then proceeded to demonstrate how she brushes it to keep it shiny and smooth.

Of course, if Audrée has buns, then her protegé must have them too. Luci was surprisingly still as I put them in and didn't complain about it hurting. Audrée tells me that it hurts but is worth it. Lucienne loves having her hair done and will often ask for a ponytail.

And Evelyn followed suit. With her we tried an experimental cornrow attempt.

I wondered how long Lucienne would keep them in but as of bedtime they were still there. However, she's a hair twirler, especially to soothe herself to sleep, so as I nursed her she had no idea what to do with her hands and fingers. They were all over the place looking for something to twirl or fiddle. I have a feeling those buns aren't all going to be there in the morning!

A friend posted on Facebook, "I don't know how you do it with 4 girls...I have a hard enough time with just doing Kenzie's hair!" To which I responded, "This happens once every 4-5 months. I'm lucky if a brush runs through everyone's hair on a normal day". Erica seconded that.


Postscript: Audree woke me up at 2 in the morning to let me know she had taken out her buns so that her hair wouldn't be too poufy in the morning. And since she was already there...she snuggled in for the rest of the night. When Lucienne crawled in around 4 hers were still holding on. She'd pulled them a bit but at least the bottom half of her hair should be curly.

Another Summer Bites the Dust

I know I probably say it every year, but, THAT WAS THE SHORTEST SUMMER BREAK EVER!!

Today was the first day of school for the girls. Kind of. Audrée has to wait until next Thursday for her start date but the other two started today. This morning after the girls got on the bus we made a paper count-down chain, 9 loops for 9 days. It almost seems cruel that we've finally arrived at her year and she still has to wave to the girls as the bus disappears around the corner.

Anyway. The girls are ready. They were excited to see all their friends again and find out who their teachers are. Amelia's class is back together after having been split for 2 years so she's excited to be with Charlotte and her other girl-friends that she's been separated from. Evelyn's class will be split this year so she was a bit nervous to find out who she'll be with.

Turns out it's split with 15 of her classmates in one class and 4 of them in with the grade 1's. She's one of the four. At least she's with three of her closest friends but I'm not sure how I feel about her being with the younger grade when there's only four of them. I wish there was an easy way to keep tabs on what she's covering versus her counterpart classmates but I suppose if she seems to be getting smarter she must be doing ok. At least she enjoys reading and in the grand scheme of things if she doesn't cover everything that a normal grade 2 should cover she'll probably still survive in life.

Amelia's excited because this year she gets to learn English! Which really just means they can finally speak English at school and not get in trouble. Apparently they'll also be allowed to read the previously outlawed English books. It's the little things.

In the meantime, I have a couple more weeks of only having to get two girls ready, two sets of teeth brushed, two lunches made, and two bags packed. And I have my super Audrée helper home to help me entertain her little sister. Oh how different it will be when Audrée's not here.

Back to School

You know you're getting old when you frequently say: look how tall you're getting, I can't believe how time flies, what was I coming up for?, where did the summer go?, etc, etc.

But seriously, where did the summer go? It's the first day of school and I feel like we didn't do anything this summer. I was thinking of going on lots of day trips to the beach and splash pads and zoos and cousin visits and parks and hikes. Mind you, this was when I thought I would have the car six of the eight weeks of summer which turned out to be about one week. One of Rene's coworkers was kicked out of the carpool for being constantly late and then overtime happened which his other carpooling buddy has no interest in doing. So, I was left to searching out things to do by foot.

Anyway, back to the first day of school. It's not a very exciting morning here, which I'm going to take as a compliment and that my girls love spending time with me at home. Evelyn was in tears most of the morning.  I think we over prepared her for grade one. I just remember the transition being really hard for Amelia. The room isn't full of toys anymore and there's way more desk work. We totally under prepared Amelia and so went too far the other way with Evelyn.

Amelia isn't great with change to begin with so her not looking forward to going back to school is a given. Last year it took her a couple weeks to get into the swing of things but she was hugely disappointed that her grade had been split and she wasn't in her BFF, Charlotte's, class. This year I contacted the school to request they not be split but came away with a decision to make. Turns out we'd have to decide if she would have the same teacher for three years in a row or be in Charlotte's class. Since this has more to do with her than with me I let her make the decision. I'm so glad I did. It means that she went to school today already knowing what to expect. She choose to have a different teacher and that we would make an extra effort to have Charlotte over for more play dates. They are two peas in a pod though so it's going to take more than being in separate classes to tear these two apart.

The other day we were talking about heaven and how we probably knew each other before we came here. We talked about how the people we meet are placed in our path for a reason. When I asked her if she thought she and Charlotte were friends before and that there's a reason why they gravitated to each other in JK she got a cute smile on her face and I could see a lightbulb go off in her head. I hope they have the type of friendship that lasts a lifetime.

Anyway...away they went. I'm happy that we have the same bus driver as the last two years and it picks up and drops off in front of our house (I really try to not take that for granted because I know how lucky we are).

I must say that although I missed them it was a much more pleasant day. No fighting. I had some downtime on my own while Lucienne napped and Audree watched a movie. Audree and I baked some chocolate chip cookies for the girls when they got home (might as well start off on the right foot).

The girls came off the bus happy and excited. They both have great teachers this year that should be a lot of fun. It's weird not knowing what they do for the bulk of their day now. Soon they'll be all grown up with their own lives and I'll be sitting at home wondering where my babies went. How time flies.

Recharging with the Fam

So, yesterday, you few readers may recall, we got together to celebrate some more of the MANY early-year birthdays in the family.  (It's going to feel like family famine now that we don't have anything to CELEBRATE in the next couple of weeks after all the fun and partying we've done the last couple of months! Yikes!)  And we got talking about my STILL being in school and my reservations about graduation and registration examinations and blah blah blah....

And I just have to tell you, that the automatic and complete assumption/belief that DUH this is going to be EASY for me to accomplish was just...well... fabulous. hahaha

And you're right - I DO have a degree. I DO have a leg up on other people trying to become an RMT.  I AM going to be awesome.  Even though the registration exam scares the bageezies out of me...I can totally do this.

So, thanks for that.  I came home last night and said to Adam, you know what, they're RIGHT.

Anyway, I'm at school now between writing a test and class starting so... that's it for now.  Thanks for believing in me and making me feel awesome.

Cheers!
Rebecca