Trish’s Blog

The words “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, [I am] free at last” keep ringing in my head like a song I can’t stop singing. I’ve finished my last deadline AND it’s the first day of school AND Josh went to the office today so I’m home alone with baby. Earlier, I told her (in gleeful tones and with big smiles) that we got rid of everybody and it’s just us at home for the whole day.  Now she’s asleep and I find myself feeling the full joy of the first day of school. FREEDOM!

The word tickled is pretty close to how I feel right now. I am reading up on my blog peeps in my google reader and even stopping to click the music vids that Cynical Dad (who is not technically one of my peeps, but a good read nonetheless) adds to the ends of his posts. How luxurious is that? I’ve got time for music videos!! No one is bugging me for something to eat. No one needs me to condemn a sibling to his/her room. No one is asking to play the Wii before finishing his or her chores. No one is making noise to wake up the baby. Today is a good day. And it’s still morning!

I thought today was going to be a bad one when Zoe wouldn’t go to sleep at 1am. I was actually heading to bed around midnight which is quite a feat for me these days. If I went to sleep at 9 or 10 like normal people, I’d be up at 2 or 3 am. Midnight is a good time for me to hit the hay, but Zoe had other ideas. She is unable to just lie in the dark with her eyes closed until sleep overtakes her. No, she needs me to get up out of the bed and rock her. I have to hold her in such a way as to keep the binky in her mouth and keep her hands from coming up to grab it away. And then I swing from side to side, my arms and shoulders getting stiff as the minutes roll by. She eventually drifts to sleep, but the real test is putting her down. Sometimes she stays asleep, and sometimes (like early this morning) you have to get back up out of the bed and do it all over again.

Not knowing how long this was going to take and wanting to sleep, I contained my frustration by singing the words “I love you” more to remind myself (and stay calm) than to lull her to sleep because my singing voice would more likely jar someone awake. I think she liked it, though. Second attempt worked like a charm. I was able to sleep deeply until Josh woke me at the sound of my alarm at 7am.

It hurt to get up that early after summer days of waking at lunch, but I had a few things to remind the kids (play nice, keep the money/check in your pocket, don’t forget your lunch) and an endeavor to walk the boys to school. So I forced my eyes open and my body vertical. Everybody was up and ready to rock. Well, except Sarah, but she leaves later now that she’s a big, bad middle schooler. Zoe got to eat before I was out the door and she was vaguely impressed with the new routine wondering what we were doing outside before the sun reached our front lawn. The timing could not have been more perfect.

On the way to school the boys talked about what Zoe would look like if she were a Mario character (clearly the video game marathons of summer still fresh in their minds) and it was decided that she would be a koopa that crawls with a big binky in her mouth and super long eyelashes. I left the boys at the corner before the big intersection where the crossing guards are. They are not yet embarrassed by their mom and gave hugs and kisses freely in public. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera because seeing them walk away with matching backpacks, framed overhead by tree branches with the school in the distance was a definite kodak moment. I’ll take the picture tomorrow because walking them to school may well be a daily routine (and I can pretend like it was the first day of school and that I’m one of those on-top-of-it moms).

I made it back to the house before it was time for Sarah to be outside for the bus. I went in to find her undoing everything that she and I had done to pack up her school supplies. I know I was like this, too, insecure about what kind of bag I carried, etc., but I so hope to indoctrinate her with the “nobody cares” school of thought. No one cares if you walk onto campus with a bag full of school supplies with “CONTAIN YOURSELF” in bright pink letters, nobody cares!! They’re too busy worrying about what kind of bag their carrying to notice your discomfort. And if anyone did care, it’d be to say they LOoOOOve the Container Store, too. Anyhow, I grudgingly gave in and let her carry her things to school the way she wanted to. She shoved as much of it as she could into her backpack and then stacked the rest of the paper/folders/dividers/binders/Kleenex and carried it in her arms. She kept dropping the Kleenex boxes and didn’t have a free hand to eat on the way to the bus stop, but she must suffer the consequences or else admit that Mom in her wisdom, RULES. No such luck. When we were headed out the door she said, “Wait. Are you coming with me to the bus stop?” I said “Yes,” forceful enough for her to know not to persist in her line of questioning. It’s payback already… I think I was embarrassed by my mom’s big jacket with hood fringed with fluffy wool and the big moon boots on her feet back in fifth grade in snowy Idaho. Still, I want to yell that nobody cares!!

I softened and let her walk a full ten paces ahead of me, and then I offered to sit on the opposite side of the street, but she relented probably remembering that it is usually I who provide her meals. We sat on the curb with Zoe’s stroller between us and waited to see when the bus would show up. It was closer to the time I thought it would come and less from what Sarah thought it would be. Whew. Glad that I persisted in pushing us out the door early or she would not have made it on the bus.

It’s 4:15pm now and still no sign of her. The boys made it home together. It was nice to see them coming down the street actually walking together. Zoe was ready for her playmates to reappear.

Seth walked in and said, “It was super, super, super, super, duper fun.” Zack said that his teacher was nice. They told me about different things that happened, showed me their new folders, and lost no time saying they had no homework. Then they took over holding and playing with Zoe. She was very happy to sit on Zack’s neck while he walked in circles around the house, and she smiled at me every time they passed by.

Sarah is home! She had lost of exciting things to tell me about school and has inherited my skills of giving a play by play from the moment she walked through the front doors. Well, at least, she knows I expect it and didn’t let me down. Her description of middle school is “awesome.” She found out that there were people in her classes that she knew (and liked) and she made a totally new friend who is in practically every class with her. Sarah also reported that she has no homework. Her favorite teachers are the ones over PE and Science. I’m excited because she’s so jazzed about science that she wants to join the Science Club. A good teacher in this subject will ensure that her love for it will endure. She described the first day in band complete with keeping time saying, “Down, down, down…” when tapping her foot to the beat or saying, “Up, up, up…” when her foot comes off the floor. The teacher then made it more challenging by going faster and mixing it up. She also learned proper band posture and demonstrated it for me. She had such a great day and complained exceedingly over the short three minute break when she could only find one friend say hi and then run to class after the first bell. I know she must be feeling the roominess of middle school. There are so many new things opened up to her and not just one teacher to answer to. I can feel the doors opening up to her as she stretches out for more knowledge.

I guess I’m not the only one feeling free today.

Posted on August 25th, 2008 by trish
Filed under: Haley Kids, New