6:01am: I remember that Micah's bus time has been changed to 6:33am and contemplate sleeping for another 15 minutes.
6:06am: I find Micah and Saoirse (highly unusual, she's typically the last one to wake up each morning) in a dark living room petting the cat.
6:09am: Remind Micah to brush his teeth and hair and tell him we should really reset our alarm clocks for 6:15am. Sit bleary eyed on couch for a spell.
6:13am: Tell Saoirse that mother cats carry their kittens around in their mouths. She looks horrified and then skeptical so I demonstrate. With a toy cat.
6:22am: Micah's bus shows up 11 minutes early. Walk him out and try to avoid my "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS" voice as I inquire about his pick up time, already feeling like she has robbed me of 15 extra minutes of sleep that didn't even happen yet. She has very little, if any, sympathy for me. I've only been up for 22 minutes, whereas she's already on her 4th stop of the route.
6:23am: Watch Micah's bus pull away. Feel extremely sad that his school day will keep him for the next 10 hours.
6:25am: Waddle back into the house to discover that Oscar and Nuala are now both awake and apparently starving. Slave away to make them a delicious and healthy breakfast that will let them know how much I love them. (Just kidding, they had cereal).
6:30am: Cringe as I suddenly remember that Maija asked me to change a load of laundry for her last night so that she'd have a leotard for school today (yep, she's a dance major). Dash (sluggishly) down to laundry room only to discover that loving husband did it last night without even being asked. Remind myself to thank him profusely and stand around doing nothing in laundry room except for thinking about what a wonderful guy he is. He's like the World's Greatest.
6:31am: Turns out the laundry room sort of smells. Stop daydreaming about husband and throw some towels in the washer.
6:45am: Say goodbye to Finn. Tell Saoirse to say goodbye to Finn. She Meow's very loudly from the next room where she is laying inside an empty laundry basket with a toy cat in her mouth.
6:52am: Saoirse runs to the front door and cries because she wants to say goodbye to Finn.
7:15am: Wake up Brendan. Forget to tell him thank you. Forget to tell him how he's the World's Greatest.
7:30am: Wake up Maija. Wonder why she doesn't have an alarm clock. Decide that she'd probably just hit the snooze button if left to her own devices.
7:45am Say goodbye to World's Greatest rather hurriedly as I fill out a few last pieces of back to school paperwork. Once again forget to thank him. Make sure Sidhe and Ruari are getting started on the day and that Maija is out of the shower. Reminders for bed making and dirty dish loading are shared. I wonder if I'll ever have to stop sharing them.
7:47am: Start to feel a little guilty for "sharing" in maybe not as nice of a way as I'd like. Wonder if my own bed has actually been made yet and load Brendan's dirty dishes from last night, suddenly grumpy with World's Greatest.
8:00am: Referee squabble between 3 young children. Wish I could have some coffee.
8:11am: Field complaints from Ruari about how her bus is late every morning and how it isn't fair that I am still making her go to the bus stop at the scheduled time. Kindly (for real kindly) explain that "the bus will eventually start coming on time and who knows when, so let's just pretend that the bus will be on time today and please get to the bus stop accordingly. Thanks."
8:13am: Ruari wants to know when I will look up the proper way to tie her new shoes online. Each shoe has 3 sets of laces and so we've been at a loss. I begin to Google instructions before I remember that I already DID look it up last week and even told her about it! She has a razor sharp memory too. Shrug it off and decide she's just crabby at me for making her go to the bus stop on time. Which by the way is only 40 feet from our front door.
8:14am: Change load of laundry. While in basement Finn calls to let me know he's caught the plague and needs to be retrieved from school post haste.
8:15am: Feeling rushed, I help Maija pack her lunch (she had a visit with the Ortho yesterday and can chew practically nothing). Wonder briefly is she'll actually be able to sustain herself with only a yogurt and a slice of wheat bread. Go the extra mile and slice up a rather ripe plum for her as well. Notice she's already packed a Laughing Cow cheese and feel satisfied she'll make it through the day.
8:17am: Say goodbye to Ruari, who has noticed that one of her friends is already at the bus stop early.
8:18am: Ask, kindly (See? I got this, no problem), for all 3 Littles to get their shoes on and get in the car as quickly as possible. Feel relieved that I had enough sense to get them dressed earlier. Realize I don't actually remember getting them dressed. Wonder briefly who did. Decide it doesn't matter because they are in fact fully clothed and getting their shoes on.....Wait....
8:20am: Demand (not kindly at all really) that 3 Littles get their butts in the car and decide I don't really care if they are wearing shoes after all. Start to feel very stressed out about getting to Finn in a more timely fashion.
8:25am: Finally pull out of driveway, notice that Ruari's bus has already arrived. On time. Refuse to succumb to a case of the "I told you so's" because I am after all a grown up. Sort of.
8:26am: Discover (okay, okay, I am reminded) that the car is on empty and there is no way I'll make it to both high schools without stopping first. Recall how World's Greatest offered to gas it up for me last night but I declined. Why did he listen to me?! Ugh. This is entirely all his fault. Call him at work just to say hi.
8:33am: Drop off Maija and Sidhe. Remember how just 2 days ago I sat in the car and watched them walk off into their first day of high school and cried on the drive home, yes those were the good old days. Today I all but shoved them out of the van before high tailing it out of there.
8:35am: Decide I can make it to Finn's high school without stopping for gas. Spend the next 7 minutes arguing with myself and hoping that I'm right.
8:43am: Arrive at said high school, retrieve plague riddled teenager, which did of course involve getting all 3 Littles out of the car and ushering them through the halls of my old stomping ground (goodness am I ever grateful to have survived high school!). Discover that Maija forgot her lunch box, wonder if it was somehow my fault since I was in such a hurry. Conclude that it is not.
8:51am: Try to get gas at 3 different shady stations along a rather impoverished stretch of Capitol, while Finn tries to keep it together and the Littles make a point of trying to NOT keep it together. At gas station number 3 I actually slam on the brakes, shift it into Park and play tug of war with Saoirse over a rubber snake. The snake's head pops off and all hell breaks loose, reminding me yet again that sometimes my attempts to put out small fires actually result in gasoline induced explosions. There is no kind way to pop a snakes head off.
9:00am: Deliver Finn to the comfort of his own room. Return to Maija and Sidhe's school to talk with their guidance counselor. Discover that taking 3 Littles and one giant baby belly into a high school office has it's perks as everyone is very attentive to us and seems to want to get us out of there in a timely fashion. I've been leaving voice mails for this lady for weeks now, turns out all I needed to do was show up unannounced with 4 small children in tow.
9:07am: Sit down in a very small office to hash out the details of my schedule change requests. Learn that the school has had to over-enroll by nearly 220 students in order to stay afloat of the budget cuts. Feel sad and angry and sick to my stomach all at once. Decide that Micah's 10 hour day is worth his 15 student class size.
9:27am: Leave school office with schedule changes in place (victory). Feel like a helicopter parent for a) being the only parent there and b) leaving Maija's lunch box with the secretary. I swear I will not be driving her lunch to school for her again.
9:32am: Drive home. Headless snake glares at me from passenger seat. Think about how many young teachers I saw in the hallways of both schools. Feel old. Remind the babies (kindly once again) to please stop arguing. Start to seriously rethink their seating arrangements. Remember that the whole reason I moved them to the same row is because we need to make room for another car seat.
9:33am-Present Moment: Wonder how to heck we're going to do all of this with a newborn!
P.S. Just kidding, I also ate 2 bags of chips.
And since I didn't actually get too many pictures of Finn on his first day (turns out 16 year old boys aren't exactly crazy about head shots) here are a few of him from Labor Day....
I think I might even post again tomorrow, no snakes allowed.
No comments:
Post a Comment