Long Time, No See

Today marks the official second day of school.  In celebration, here's the picture I posted to my student Instagram account.

I'm sure they think I'm a complete loser.

To be perfectly honest, summer wasn't long enough by any means, but any angst I had about coming back was quickly dismissed when I saw all my sweet, and ornery babies yesterday. Yes, even that one who talks really REALLY loud, always interrupts me at the most inappropriate times, and could argue with a wall even when she knows she's dead wrong...I even missed her. (You know who you are!) She tends to read my blog a lot, so I figured I may as well make it worth her time. ;) 

So far, everything has been super! At first glance, my kids seem to all be really great, well behaved, smart, and eager to learn 11 year olds. They even laugh at my jokes which I know are super cheesy.  Tomorrow, we start diving into the world of blogging and blog stalking. Which, of course, leads me to why I am on here at 10:20pm when I made a promise to myself to be asleep by 10pm.
When summer started, I was just so tired.  I needed a break from everything.  Even when you love your job and what you do, sometimes you just need to veg out and do nothing at all. Thus, I took a summer long hiatus from anything work related, including my blog.  My summer consisted of a whole lot of laying out by the pool, three vacation trips, and lots of mommy/Chloe bonding. 

Although my blog isn't solely written for my students, (it's actually written for Chloe to be able to look back on years from now and get to relive some of our crazy fun times and see how much I loved and adored her) it is something that I do with my kids at school and many of them keep up with my posts. Every Thursday and Friday we blog together. They sign on to theirs, I sign on to mine, we all blog about whatever is on our mind, and then we blog stalk each other.  It's honestly quite fun, and I enjoy getting to read some of their more personal writings that aren't so formulaic and based of a prompt.  I think at least some of them enjoy it too. At least, that's my impression based on comments like this:
 

 and this...

I'm honestly not sure if I'm more giddy that I'm reaching and connecting with students in a new way or that sweet Kaylah spelled "you're" correctly. #englishteacherobsessions 

I'm SO behind from not blogging, though. My goal in the next week is to back track to June and make a post about Chloe's fabulous Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 3rd birthday party and talk about all of our summer travels.

For now, I'll leave you with this. Chloe started preschool last week. If you follow me on Facebook, you know it's been hard on my shy little lamb.  Here she is on her first day.

Excited. Rotten. Ready.

Chloe thrives with familiarity, routine, and close relationships. It's so hard for her to find her comfort zone and open up...even with family!  I will say she is a TON better than she used to be, though.  That doesn't dismiss the fact that it's still quite a feat for her to hurdle before she starts kindergarten. Every day since day two has been a struggle. See exhibit A:

I swear she did this ALL morning long.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  She wakes up and almost immediately starts in on the, "I don't want to go to school today. I want to stay home with you." whining.  Oh, the whining. If you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about. The most wretched, makes you want to pound your head into a wall repeatedly until it goes away kind of sound. (Insert high pitched toddler-like squealing) "Mommmeeeeee, I don't waaaaannnnnnnttttt to go to Roxannnnnnneeeee's hooouuuuusssseeeeee." which is often accompanied with throwing herself on the ground, stomping of the feet, or any number of other dramatic options.  Pretty much like clockwork, it almost always turns into tears when the reality of getting dressed so we can head out the door happens.  The tears continue pretty much ALL.THE.WAY.TO.MRS.ROXANNE'S.HOUSE. It's exhausting. 

Please, pray for my sweet girl. Pray that she finds the peace and comfort to open her heart to this new school and learn to love Mrs. Roxanne as much as she loved her Jakki.

Here is a barrage of our pictures from the last few days. *Special note: Somehow, by the grace of God, I got a smiling picture out of her today. Don't be fooled though. There was enough whining, crying, and all out belly aching that went on before and after the picture to put this sane mommy in a state home.

Day 1: Cuz I'm happy, happy, happy....

Day 2: Like, seriously, really? Could she be more dramatic? I promise no elephants were hurt during this meltdown.

Day 3: Cuz I'm happy, happy, happy...until drop off time...

Day 4: Here we go again...

Day 5: It's pretty much all down hill from here.

Day 6: The things we do to try to bring a smile to our little's faces.

Day 7: Don't be fooled. See that red nose and puffy eyes?

Day 7 Continued: Drop off. That poor elephant has had a rough week.

OH, and one more thing before I go. Today would have been my dad's 70th birthday. Somewhere up in heaven, there's a party going on! HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Till next time,
Lori