Back to School Night

Last night was Back to School Night at Natalie's elementary school. DH and I decided that he would stay home with Natalie and Nicholas while I went to the school. He picked up Natalie to take some of the load off me.

It literally takes me 20-25 minutes to pick Nicholas up now that he is potty training with underwear. That's after making the close to 10 minute drive around 2 blocks to get to the school. Then add in the 25 minute ride to get to Natalie's school, plus another 10 minutes to get her out of there (which is usually spent keeping Nicholas away from the toys at her after care program) and then 5 minutes to get home. From leaving my office door to walking in at home, that's roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes, on a good day.

So if I need to be at Back to School Night at 6:30 pm, and somehow manage to eat something for dinner -- I need a whole lot of help and good fortune.

With DH's help, I was home by 5:55 pm. I quickly changed and eat very fast plus made Natalie's bed. (Her comforter cover was blue from The Marker Incident the previous evening, so DH washed it during the day, but he doesn't know how to make beds, never mind put on a comforter cover, so I had to do that before leaving for Back to School Night.) I left the house at 6:24 pm.

I got to Back to School Night and found a parking place. I ran into the PTA President and she told me that there was a "pile" of completed Family Directory forms in her mailbox. I'm a newbie to this PTA stuff and didn't know where the mailboxes were -- she marched me through the office and showed me the mailboxes. At this point I'm pretty thrilled with the "stack" -- yes, I have taken on the Family Directory for a school that does not have a Family Directory now, so I'm starting "at the ground floor".

I went to the cafeteria for the pre-Back-to-School-Night PTA meeting. I sorted through the Family Directory forms -- roughly 2/3 of them have email addresses! WOOHOO! Based on all the "but not everyone has an email address" talk I had heard from the PTA members, I figured we would be lucky with 10% of the folks having email addresses. And we have roughly 150 completed forms so far which did not include the forms distributed at Back to School night! I'm pretty psyched.

The PTA meeting is fast -- elect the PTA officers and approve the budget. And at 7:10 pm we're off to meet the classroom teacher. Natalie's teacher is a first-year teacher at the school but spent 10 years teaching half-day Kindergarten at another school in Fairfax County. She had a very well-run Parents Night presentation. Lots of great handouts, information, etc. But it is very short -- just 25 minutes. Then it's time to move to Session 2 -- primarily for families that have children in different classes in the school. For Session 2 I went to the front of the school and filled out my membership for PTA and wrote my check out for dues. I also spent some time talking to the principal and one of the members of the civic association board.

All in all, it was a good night. The logistics of this stuff are maddening, though. I honestly do not know how working families do this.

Little Boy Blue

Getting Nicholas to go to bed and go to sleep has become the bane to our (plural) existence over the past several weeks. I am absolutely determined to NOT have him in our bed, and thus, the battle of wills.

Tonight I let DH handle Nicholas and his bedtime. I went downstairs to the playroom to catch a DVR of The Colbert Report and Project Runway. Then I hear...

"Oh My Gawd. WHAT have YOU done?!"

Then silence.

Then a yell -- "Mommy -- you must come up here."

So I went up to see what devastation may have occured.

Nicholas had acquired one of Natalie's blue (washable) markers and had colored both of his arms -- in their entirety -- blue.

Guess who got to take a shower tonight?

H, if you are reading this, we must make plans for Aruba. Or Miami Beach. Or Key West.

Comings and goings and comings

DH had a "so long" party to go to for one of his friends on Capitol Hill, so I had "soccer duty". Or so I thought.

I left work early to go pick up Nicholas (takes 20 minutes with a potty training 2 year-old) and then drove to Natalie's elementary school to pick her up from after-care so we could go home to get her changed for soccer. DH was home (thank goodness) so he could help with getting Natalie into shin guards, cleats, etc. and get Nicholas into the potty (again) before we left the house. Natalie needed a snack before soccer so got that onto the table at 5:15 pm so she could make soccer practice at 5:30 pm.

We get out of the house at 5:20 pm, with the full knowledge that we would be late for soccer practice.

I drive down the road and turn off to what I then realize is the road to go to the school for soccer games, not soccer practice.

Turn around, get back on to the road that is loaded with commute time cars, to get to the right turn off for the road to go to the school for soccer practice.

We arrive at 5:45 pm. There are hardly any cars.

The only soccer players there are boys.

I call DH's cell phone. Voicemail.

I find the coach's cell phone number and call him.

"There is no practice today. It's back to school night so we cancelled practice."

I find this out after my 2 hour journey around northern Virginia.

I took the kids to Silver Diner for dinner.

The PTA

I went to the first PTA meeting of the year. Yes, this is not my first PTA meeting -- I have actually been attending meetings on and off for about a year. But it was the first meeting where I could introduce myself as "Mom to a Kindergartener".

It was heartening to see other Kindergarten parents at the meeting. The PTA President ran a very efficient meeting -- we were in and out in a little over an hour. But I think some of the Kindergarten parents hoped to learn a little more. Thankfully we have Back to School Night next week, and the principal (whom I truly adore -- she really is a GREAT principal!) is having a Parent Coffee the last Wednesday of September, specifically for Kindergarten parents. I already told DH he has to go with me. :-)

Dance day and soccer day

We have made it through the first week of Kindergarten. *whew*

Today is the first day of pre-ballet class for Natalie and the first day of soccer for Nicholas. Both are at the same time so DH is taking Nicholas to soccer and I'm taking Natalie to pre-ballet. Natalie is excited because not only is this pre-ballet, where the big girls gom but she will also get to see her friend M from pre-school. M goes to a different Kindergarten (she does not live in our neighborhood) so I'm guessing the girls will compare notes. :-) After pre-ballet, Natalie has to scoot to soccer because her game time (for this week and the next two weeks) are immediately after dance. So we'll definitely be late to the games, but what are you going to do? I let the coach know already, and it's all I can do. At least she'll be warmed up from dance class!

Tomorrow we have a playdate with friends from her pre-school class. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, so I'm glad the kids will have a chnace to see each other and play outside, too. It should be fun.

Kindergarten Day has arrived!

It's pretty early in the morning right now. The dining room table is set for breakfast. Lunches have been made. Bags are packed -- backpack for Natalie with about half the school supplies (the rest will be brought in tomorrow), and tote bag for Nicholas. Natalie has already picked out her clothes for today -- although she might change her mind on an outfit once she sees how hard it is raining today. I'm glad we picked up rain boots this weekend!

She was in bed at 8:15 pm but I know she did not fall asleep until after 10 pm. She was simply too excited to sleep. Hopefully she'll wake up at 7 am like she "normally" does.

DH is going to pick her up from school age child care about an hour after she arrives, just so she gets to see what it's like there. I think soccer practice will be cancelled due to the weather. That works out for the best, anyway -- it's too much to expect on the first day of Kindergarten.

I'll post more later...

9/10/06: ETA: Here's Natalie with her backpack plus fully packed lunchbox:


And here she is getting a hug from her brother before we head out into the pouring rain to head to school:

Here comes Kindergarten

Yes, the week has finally come -- it's time to start Kindergarten!

We all went to Open House at our elementary school on Thursday. Natalie learned about her teacher (Mrs. D) and assistant (Mrs. W) and then got to meet them. Mrs. D is new to the elementary school and she is teamed up with one of the veteran IAs -- I have heard nothing but absolutely glowing reports about her, so I'm thrilled. Natalie is a little scared and a little excited. She saw all the "big kids" at the Open House and that worried her a little, but once she got into the classroom, she was great. She will also attend school age child care (SACC) at the school, and she got to see the classrooms and the teachers there, too.

We walked to the school today so Natalie and Nicholas could play on the playground. She's pretty excited even today.

9/10/06 ETA: Here are a few pictures from Open House:

First one is Natalie in her classroom. Her teacher asked her to find her name at the table and draw a picture of herself.



And here is Natalie admiring her finished picture -- it's actualy a picture of her and her best friend from pre-school J. (J doesn't live in our school district so Natalie is particularly missing her right now.)



Nicholas just couldn't wait for all the "visiting the classroom stuff" to be done so he could visit the playground: