Head Over Heels

You Don't Actually Sit on the Babies

Last night Bryan and I had to divide and conquer. Peter's school and Phoebe's grade had their Open Houses at the same time, and school-age children were not welcome. Bryan learned all about 8th grade and the rapidly approaching pressures of high school, while I sat in a colorful classroom and learned about 3rd grade. I'm very thankful that Peter is old enough to babysit. I did take Topher with me, and we spent part of the evening listening from the hall, but it was much more manageable than it would have been with all five of them there.

I know teenagers are supposed to be awful, but teenage Peter is pretty great.

When Peter Comes Home

Each afternoon we walk to the bus stop to meet Phoebe and Sophie. They happily hop off the bus and give Topher hugs. Peter's bus comes a few minutes later, Cooper's comes an hour after that. The first few days of the school year Peter got off the bus and ignored us while talking to his friends, so we didn't wait for him. 

Then this week, as we started to leave the bus stop, Topher wouldn't go. He kept turning back to where Peter's bus would soon be. When the bus pulled up Topher started waving excitedly. Peter came down the stairs and, instead of talking to his friends, came running for Topher. Topher grinned when Peter scooped him up, then wrapped his little arms around his big brother's neck.

I think we have a new bus stop tradition.

Reboot In Process

I took a nap yesterday.

It helped a lot.

That is all.

Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again

Sometimes I wish I could reboot my brain. You know when your phone or laptop get overheated it can help to turn them off and let them cool down? Yeah, my brain could benefit from that. It's only the third week of school and I'm already feeling seriously overwhelmed. Why?

I don't exactly know.

I think it's a combination of tired kids, growing paper piles from school, ignored chores, all three of my church callings being back in session after doing only one during the summer break, Topher discovering he can climb EVERYTHING, getting back into dance lessons and scouts and possible after school clubs, having exceptionally loud children and an echo-y home, carrying the mental load of who needs to be where and when for the whole house, running (ideally) daily devotionals with my family, and a general lack of consistent sleep on my part.

Yup, my brain is definitely overloaded.

One side-effect of this overwhelm is that I'm suddenly even worse at answering texts and emails than I already am. They come to my phone, I read them, then my brain shuts down when I try to respond; I simply can't find words to write back. So I put my phone away and assure myself that I'll get back to them after bedtime. Of course, by that point in the day my circuits are really fried, so I probably won't answer then either. This goes on for a few days, and then I have guilt.

Maybe instead of cooking and cleaning during Topher's mid-day nap, I'll take a cue from him and snooze as well. That's kind of like turning my brain off and on again, right?

We Take Our Time

We only had four days of school this week.

We missed the bus two and a half of those days.

I think we're already tired and we're only two weeks into the new school year.

Fort-itude

Knowledge is Power

My kids are loud. So, so, so, so loud. Sometimes Bryan and I have to excuse ourselves from dinner to sit in a quiet room and let our ears stop ringing. Usually we do this one at a time. Usually.

The thing that I think is interesting about their loudness is that they're generally unaware. They have no idea that they're speaking to you as if they're trying to be heard over gale force winds across a football field, when in reality they're standing next to you in a relatively calm space. I will often turn to them and say, "Did you know that you're yelling?" Then they apologize and shift to a stage whisper for a few words before cresendoing back to full volume.

Yesterday afternoon Peter was sitting across the room from me, reporting on his school day. I interrupted partway through and asked, "Peter, did you know that you're yelling?"

"Yes," he replied without any decrease in his volume, "I always know when I'm yelling."

Bus Buddies

The First Week: A Review

I intended to write this up last Friday, but we ended up having a family adventure that ran late and I simply was all out of brain power by the time we got home.

So how did the first week of school go?

• Peter finished his first project of the school year (a website all about him) and will turn it in tomorrow. He thinks his teachers are the good kind of funny and is enjoying himself. Two hard-ish things: 1. Peter is still sitting by himself at the peanut-free table; he's getting extra reading time, but also feeling lonely. 2. Because of a change in the class schedule, he'll only have gym for one trimester this year; neither of us thinks that's enough.
• Cooper is really happy with school, which is a relief. His homeroom teacher, who Peter also had in sixth grade, told him he looked like his brother but was MUCH quieter. That is a factual observation. Cooper has been really worn out each evening though, which has led to a lot of yelling and anger and time in his room to cool down.
• Phoebe had a fantastic week, though she reported that her teacher had a disappointingly small classroom library, only one set of bookshelves. And she reported that he told them he'd bought hard books because he'd heard they were such good readers, but Harry Potter was the most challenging thing in his collection. That's okay, she can keep bringing her own book in.
• Sophie had an excellent week, though she did leave her water bottle on the bus just prior to the four-day weekend and that led to many tears and a temporary refusal to leave the bus stop. Her teacher surprised and thrilled me by emailing on Friday night to let me know how the week was. Here's what she said:
• Sophie had a fantastic first week in kindergarten!  She was all smiles and so caring and helpful this week with her friends!  She won the clappers for being our leader for the Pledge Of Allegiance each day this week.  She was so excited when she saw her sister too throughout the day!  Keep up the amazing work Sophie!
• Topher took fantastic naps each day and loved having time with me, but missed the big kids quite a bit. Each time one of them got on a school bus throughout the week he would look at me, shrug his shoulders, and ask (with sounds, not words) where they went. Then he would grin and giggle and dance in the afternoons when the buses delivered them home.

Overall, a great first week.