conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

It’s been a long week. Dad’s on vacation, yay! However, it’s been filled to the brim with the unexpected. A friend’s sick baby (made them some dinners and then had a long visit yesterday). Doctor’s checkup for me. Trees planted in the yard.

We rented an aerator and did the lawn this morning.

Had a looooong PTA meeting and back-to-school night. New principal is very funny and smart, and the school and PTA seem to be pushing hard for a strong values education and family involvement. Love it. Got the terrible news that the dad of one of Jim’s first school friends has been in the hospital the past month with a terrible cancer. Radiation treatment may leave him paralyzed. My heart is just breaking.

On the other side, I found that another karate mom enrolled her two boys. Neither are in Jim’s class, but one is in the other first grade class. So it’s nice to have another mom-friend there, especially since some have dropped with the move to first grade.

Talked to Jim’s teacher a bit. She’s very sweet and organized. She’s open to helping us out with some of Jim’s behavior work, and is going to have him be a helper so that he doesn’t get bored — already we see that he may have the problem with being bored in class.

So tired now. Dad took Colin out, so I’m going to rest with some knitting and a movie.

School has tired Jim out enough so that he is no longer waking up at 5:00 – 5:30, but instead, a more acceptable 6:00 – 6:30. When he goes to full days next week, I may have to start waking him up.

Last night, about an hour after I put the boys to bed, I hear a bunch of bumping noises, meaning that Jim can’t fall asleep for whatever reason. In these cases, I give him half a melatonin tablet, and he’s out in about 15 minutes. So I go upstairs, and find out that Jim is sound asleep, and Colin is banging around in his crib. But thankfully, not crying his head off, which is his usual mode of operation.

He lets me know that his diaper is wet, so I change him, cuddle him, and then nestle him in among all his bedtime paraphenilia. Which includes his latern “nightlight”. his new ghost “nightlight”, Shock the monkey, Ernie, Shaymin, three books, his blanket, my rattle from babyhood, his radio, and his toy train engine. He’s as bad as Jim these days.

He’s on the bus…

It went really well, considering that yesterday was a not so good Jim day. He woke up around six, took a long shower, got dressed, etc., without any real complaints at all. His backpack was too heavy, which I agree with, so I took out some of the school supplies (I don’t think he’ll need ALL THREE containers of Handi-Wipes on the first day).

We really weren’t 100% sure we were going to have a bus today, since we first got a letter saying that they couldn’t get a bid. Then a week or so ago, we got the notice of where his bus stop is and the service they’re using. My guess is that last year’s company decided to take the minimum, because that’s who has his route. And Jim has the same bus driver and she’s got a new bus, so everyone’s happy.

Here’s the big guy (notice that for both boys, it was haircut day yesterday):

2009 photos