Third First

I got my hair cut last Wednesday, July 18th.   The stylist mentioned that her grandkids had been living with her over the summer and she was really excited for them to start school on Monday.  I said, "yeah.  Next Monday.  That's when my son starts" to which she replied, "no.  This Monday.  The 23rd." to which I responded, "no. Next Monday. The 30th."

We went back and forth like this for a while.  Then I pulled out my phone and looked for the district calendar so I could prove her wrong.  I found it, downloaded it, looked and saw that school started on.......... the 23rd. 

Damn!  How could I have gotten that wrong?  I know I was stressed out and sleep deprived last spring when I originally printed the district calendar, but even under those circumstances it's not like me to get a date that wrong and write it on the calendar wrong.

After I left there I drove by Spencer's school.  Sure enough the sign said, 1st day of School July 23rd.  It also said, Meet the Teacher Night, Thursday July 19th.  That was the next day!  We had received no info about it.  No email.  No letter.  No phone call.  Nothing.

I came home and immediately went to the desk so I could look at the calendar I had printed in April.  Thank goodness I kept it.  I checked and sure enough it said that the first day of school was Monday July 30th.  Then I looked at the new calendar.  Apparently the school board approved calendar, that was published on the district website was AMENDED on May 8th.  I'm not crazy.  They are.

So, Spencer almost missed the first week of school.  I absolutely never would have rechecked the district website.  And I wouldn't have gone looking for info about meet the teacher night until this week.  He's going to school at the same preschool this year as last year and has the same teacher, so the only reason we even went was to get the paperwork we knew she hands out that night.

Here he is at Meet the Teacher.  He marched right in and gave his teacher a big hug.  He's very confident this year.

Spencer's birthday is on September 6th.  It is 6 days after the cut-off for starting kindergarten.  My birthday is September 5th.  My mom and dad had me tested when I was 4 and started me in kindergarten.  We made the decision to keep Spencer in prechool for one more year.   He would do fine in kindergarten this year.  He would be fine in 1st, 2nd, 3rd grades, etc.  We decided to let him be the older kid in his class more for the advantage it will give him in Junior High and High School.  I was always the very youngest kid in my class and it was difficult during the teen years.

I've been worried about this, literally, since I was in labor.  He was a month early so I didn't think I would have to worry about this decision during my pregnancy, since he should have had an October birthday.  I feel very much at peace with the decision now.

Next year we'll have first day of kindergarten pictures.  But for now, we have first day of the third go-round of preschool pictures.

Spencer on his first day of preschool- 2010

Spencer on his second first day of preschool- 2011

Spencer on his third first day of preschool- 2012

Do you see a theme?  Apparently we like animal themed outfits from Gymboree for the first day of school.  They are all from the extreme sales rack, so apparently Gymboree likes to get rid of these outfits in July.

He had to bring a bag with 5 items that told something about him.  He took his Spencer Train (because his name is Spencer and he likes Thomas the Train), a paint brush (because he likes to paint), a Brown Bear, Brown Bear book (because he likes reading and he can read that whole book), stickers (because he likes decorating things to make them beautiful) and goggles (because he likes swimming).  Those were his descriptions, not mine.

I've shifted Elliott's whole schedule so that he naps right before we take Spencer to school, he eats lunch while Spencer is at school and then he naps again after we get home from picking Spencer up  from school.  It gives me no break from kids during the day, but it works better than any of the other scenarios I threw around in my head.

Guess what this little sailor did last night?  He slept from 9:30 pm to 5:00 am.  Michael had to rock him at 10:00 pm, I rocked him at 10:30 pm, and Michael rocked him at 12:50 am, but he didn't wake up any of those times- just fussed and threatened to wake up.  He officially slept through the night!  He nursed at 5:00 am and then slept again until 8:00.  It was amazing!

Guess what I did today for the first time since before I got pregnant with the above referenced sailor baby?  Took Tylenol.  I haven't needed pain reliever of any kind (I'm pretty cautious with medication when pregnant/nursing) in at least 17 months.  I have somehow severely injured my back though, and I feel like I am walking around with railroad spikes in my spinal cord.  I was having actual muscle spasms on Friday night.  The weird thing is that I can't remember doing anything that would have hurt my back like this.  But eeh gads, it's bad.