The weekend was really just shit. My kids have been reacting in a normal fashion to such a drastic change in lifestyle, but it's still pretty hard to take. Aidan has had some massive, angry tantrums. It got really bad on Sunday, then it got better Monday and Tuesday, and today, just before bed, he threw another one. Poor kid. I'm afraid that the demands of "real" school might be getting to him, even though he says he likes it. It could also be the fact that I'm so distracted and that Matt's gone. He says he enjoys school, but he's peed in his pants once and has already been to the school nurse for a tummy ache. I had to quickly make arrangements today to leave and go get him, but then they called me back and said he felt better all of a sudden.
Evan started preschool yesterday, and that seems to have gone pretty well . All of our drop-offs and pick-ups are working well, too. Evan loves our child care provider, and Aidan really seems to enjoy going there after school, too. The annoying thing about Evan right now is that he's really, really whiney and doesn't want to do a lot for himself. I'm trying not to cater to that too much b/c I don't want him to have baby-of-the-family syndrome. At the pool on Sunday, I decided that I just couldn't carry him anymore. So, of course, that meant that he was sitting on the hot concrete crying while everyone in the pool gave me the hairy eyeball. I ended up carrying him a little of the way, and then I "encouraged" him along to the car. Baby steps.
My classroom is starting to shape up a bit. It's weird being at a school where students actually bring the supplies you've asked them to buy. I found myself under a mountain of index cards, glue sticks, and colored markers. That's in addition to 130 new, huge textbooks, 260 workbooks, and 130 copies of Night. Oh, and we also got in our new handheld computers
. I have 26 of them sitting on a cart in my room in their original boxes. The kids are already freaking out in excitement over them, which worries me a bit b/c we don't have locking cabinets for them.
Besides having to get organized and figure out how the school works, I'm really enjoying my days with the students. I'm getting to know them a bit, and I'm able to put more and more names to faces. They're pretty funny. One of them nearly made me fall off of my stool on Friday when he said he was born in 1994. The girls are all mostly developed, but the guys are still playing catch-up. They're very tall, compared to the 7th graders, and the voice-cracking has kicked in big-time. I heard a kid pass off his croaky voice today as "allergies." Hehe.
I'm trying hard to remember what 8th grade was like for me. Overall, I remember starting out the year the same shallow girl I was in 7th grade and then changing massively around the middle of the school year. I'm sure being introduced to The Cure had something to do with it. :)
I'm off to Zappos.com to do some shoe-shopping. My shoe wardrobe needs an overhaul, as even my "comfy" shoes leave me hobbling by the end of the day. I'm thinking all Dansksos, all the time.
