Well Noomi’s first week of school has not greatly improved. Today when I picked her up from Kids Corner the teacher told me that she had been pushed by another child and her front tooth was knocked out. Sure enough, out comes Noomi, covered in blood with a missing central! I couldn’t believe it. Noomi said she didn’t even cry. Ajax threatened to beat up the other kid. Poor baby girl.
Today was the first day of school! Noomi was so excited that she was up around 6:15 am. I tried to get her to lay back down, but it wasn’t happening. She was up and ready to go. Ajax took a bit longer to get out of bed, lol. The kids decided they wanted to ride the bus for their first day, so Dave and I loaded them onto the Bus and then I drove to meet them at the school (not going to lie, got a little teary eyed when the kids got onto the bus). Unfortunately, the bus was way late and didn’t arrive at the school until almost 8:30 (school started at 8:20!). Ajax ended up running off with some of his friends without a backward glance, as I waited for Noomi to get off the bus.
I assumed Ajax made it to his class ok and I walked Noomi to her classroom. There was a lot going on and Noomi was quite overwhelmed. Her best friend, Cruz, was there and that seemed to make all the difference for her. There were a few times where she wanted to hang on me, but she saw Cruz doing things and felt comfortable to move forward as well. She seemed happy and excited when the teacher escorted the grown ups to the door.
After school both kids rode the bus home and Dave and I were there to greet them. Ajax bounded off the bus, he seemed to have a great time, but Noomi walked like a zombie down the steps, staring blankly without talking. I actually think she fell asleep on the bus ride home (or darn near it). She was totally out of it and said she had a bad day, a teacher yelled at her for not paying attention and made her cry and she didn’t want to go back. She was so tired I couldn’t really make sense of what happened. I am now, of course, fretting.
At dinner the kids told us more about their days. We were able to pull out positive things from Noomi’s day like eating lunch with her friends, recess outside, and music class (which she kept calling singing class). Ajax, like always, is difficult to get information out of. He said he had a good day, his teacher is nice, he has lots of friends in his class, and that he had gym with his favorite gym teacher. All good things.
Well crap I missed August.
Somehow the month escaped me and now it’s cooling down, sun’s setting earlier, we took the pool down, and the kids start school tomorrow. Summer is done folks.
Our last stint before school involved a few kids birthday parties, dinner with friends, late night movies, and, of course, fishing with grandparents. The kids were bummed that they didn’t catch anything, but of course had fun swimming. Those expensive swim lessons have finally paid off as Ajax can now actually swim and Noomi is pretty close to it.
We also had a solar eclipse across the United States and in Michigan we saw about 80% of it which was still very cool. I took the kids to a solar eclipse party at the Howell Library and we made T-shirts and ate cookies and filled a bag with books. We also stared at the sun a lot.
We took the kids to the schools’ open house and met their teachers. Noomi has Mrs. Lewis, just like Ajax, and Ajax has Mrs. Foley. This year, the third grade moves Ajax into a new school – Explorer! He has a locker and his own desk. Noomi’s incoming kindergarten class is the largest the school has seen in years, hitting about the 200 mark. They had to shuffle teachers around and add classes to accommodate them all! Ajax’s class is about 1/2 that.
Ajax is also starting soccer next week, practice being two days a week, games on Saturday. Noomi decided she wanted to join Girl Scouts, so I thought it would be fun to help out and co-lead, which I think will be great, but I was quite surprised at how much work it was!
With tomorrow being the first day of school we had a pretty quiet day today. We painted rocks and then hide them around town. The kids played at McCormick Park with friends and then we hit up the grocery store on our way home. Lunches are packed, clothes are laid out, and everyone was in bed at a reasonable time! Noomi is beyond excited to start school, she was so excited that she already completed her first homework assignment (due at the end of Sept). Ajax was less excited, but he’s definitely ready for more routine and he’s excited about being in the third grade.
(Noomi and I also met friends at the MSU Children’s Garden. Ajax wanted to go to summer camp instead)
I feel like we’ve had a hectic summer! Where to start?
