1st Day of School

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Kyle and Owen are back at River Valley Waldorf School for their third year. This is their second year of kindergarten (in Waldorf schools kids go to mixed-age kindergarten for two years-- ages 4/5/6, and stay with the same teacher for both years). They are again in separate classrooms this year. Separate classrooms is a choice for them that we made very carefully, and one that we have been very pleased with. Kyle and Owen are thriving!--and loving school!--- and we truly believe that we owe a large part of that to their school and their amazing teachers. It is fun that we've kept the blog for a good long time now, so that we can, for example, easily compare their "First Day" picture from today to last year's "First Day" (click here), and the year before's too (click here). It was with mixed emotions that we watched them ride off on the bus this morning. Man, oh man, do we ever love those little dudes (and oh, heaven help us, pleeeeease, how is it possible that they went from being those tiny-8-month-old-babies that we brought home from Haiti, to this---5-year-old's-riding-a-school-bus---, so ridiculously quickly?????). And boy, oh boy, were they ever thrilled to ride that bus. They cannot wait to wake up tomorrow and do it all again. Baby Sister, however, as predicted, had it rough this morning. Shortly after the boys had gone off to school we found her, toddling around wandering aimlessly, carrying a photo of her, Kyle, and Owen, pointing to her brothers in the picture, and endlessly repeating her favorite word: "Brothers." "brothers"-"brothers"-"brothers"-"brothers"-- it was heartwrenching and heartwarming all at once. And then, when she started repeatedly kissing the photo, and then rubbing it all over her face, it became kind of pathetic and sad (and yet, somehow amazing and beautiful too). All is well that ends well, though-- reports from Margie were that Meera was overflowing with joy (even happier than her usual happy self) all afternoon once her brothers were home. Anyway... they are all sleeping soundly now. The day is done. And I, for one, am utterly exhausted, totally wiped out, and completely emotionally drained.