Back to School

James had a phase in week for school and his first full week of school as well. His classroom is full of children aged from 3 to 6. This year James has to adjust to having 'big kids' around as well as being in school every day for 3 hours. It's a lot but he's doing very well so far. He's had two rough days but the teachers all said that it happens. They get through it.

James is very excited this year because he has a backpack - an Elmo backpack. He and Doug picked it out together at Target. James loves this backpack. He hangs it up everyday at school on an Orange hanger. It's really cute. He'll say, "Mom tell me - Do you want to hold the hanger or the backpack." Then I ask him, "James do you want to hold the hanger or the backpack?" James will say which one and then we put the backpack on the hanger together and James hangs it up.

 

Each morning on the way to school James has a snack of either Cheez-its or Goldfish. James eats breakfast each day and they have snack at school too but he still likes to have his little snack before school. The other day we got to school early and he wanted me to roll down the window so he could put his foot outside. This reminds me - he's wearing 8.5 size shoes now.

On the way to school, James loves to listen to his Elmo cd that Erica and Serge bought for him. He's had it for a while now (well over a year) but he loves loves loves to listen to it. Elmo says his name over and over again so it's appeal is obvious :) The unfortunate side-effect of the cd is that I (and also Doug) will randomly bust out singing one of the songs, "Translyvania 1-2-3-4-5!", "Happy Tapping with Elmo!", and/or "Sarasponda Sarasponda Sarasponda ruds sud sud."  Luckily James also likes to listen to non-Elmo music. We have a cd with songs from the radio that he likes - it's really a random collection of music. Popular choices of late include, "Tongue Tied", "Ho Hey", "Dancing with Myself" and "Respect." He laughs hysterically when the back up singers say, "sock it to me." He'll yell, "SOCK IT TO ME!" and then burst into laughter.  It's tough with Cillian in the car because I don't want to hurt his ears but I don't want James to go without his music in the morning. . .tough line to walk.

I took these photos of James on his first day of school (Phase-In week and Full Day of School). I can't believe how big he is and how fast it happened.

phase-in

phase-in

first day

first day

first day

first day

So we knew that James was going to be in school for three hours every day for a while and Doug and I had lots of discussions when I was pregnant about this. Where were the baby and I going to go? What were we going to do? Could I drive from the city to Evanston then back to the city then back to Evanston then back to the city with a baby? Could the baby tolerate being in the car for 3-4 hours every day? So, we cut back on our expenses and stopped spending money on things we could do without so that Cillian and I could have a place to go. It's a studio. It's about the size of our kitchen, but it's our place in Evanston. It's "Cillian's bachelor pad" :) I'm just explaining this because if I post photos from our time there you might think, "Wow ... did they redecorate their house?" Here's one photo from CBP (cillian's bachelor pad). 

I have my first week of school on my own this week. James doesn't have school Monday but it begins for me on Tuesday. It may not seem like a big deal but I'm really anxious about it. Really anxious about it. The part that's getting to me is our arrival back home. We don't get home until 12:15ish and over the summer James went down for his nap at 12:20. Both boys have to eat and nap and at the same time or one will have to nap when the other eats. Either way, I feel like the Andrea Gail. Except not as glamorous because no one's going to make a movie about my life staring George Clooney and Marky Mark. I'll let you know how things go. I'm hoping and praying it goes smoothly and that by some miracle of God, I'll be granted the patience I need.