Today I turned my alarm off. It was set for 6:21 am, but Hayley was already awake at about 6:05 so I got up while George finished getting ready to leave for work. I intended to let Breanna sleep for another half hour or so but Hayley’s excitement must have been contagious, because she came running out with a big smile at 6:15. By 6:25 I was making myself a coffee and getting Hayley started on what will be her new school morning routine.

Despite her excitement, she managed to eat almost a full bowl of cereal. And even though she is usually the slowest person on the face of the Earth, she zipped through the rest of the routine and was ready in half an hour flat. Yesterday when Breanna napped, Hayley and I found pictures in flyers and magazines that matched the things she needs to do every morning, and then we cut them out and pasted them to a piece of cardboard. I hung it on her door and today she would complete each task and then race over to see what was next. (For the curious – 1. Breakfast. 2. Brush teeth. 3. Wash up. 4. Get dressed. 5. Brush hair. 6. Get lunch bag from fridge and backpack. 7. Get downstairs for the bus.)

Just after 7, she told me she had a stomach ache. I asked her if she was nervous and she said no. I knew she actually was and just didn’t recognize it under the excitement. I took her to the bathroom but she didn’t need to go; she felt better anyway and was fine when we got our shoes on. The bus was supposed to pick her up at 7:40 but we were told to be at our stop early just in case. We ended up heading down at 7:25 just to be extra sure.

I was happy to see a mother and two girls waiting on our corner. I asked if they were waiting for the same bus and they were, so I felt better knowing I had someone to wait with, especially since we knew the intersection but not whether it would be on the North, East, South, or West side. The bus eventually got there about five minutes late and it was game on.

My biggest fear was that Hayley, who had been dying to ride a big yellow school bus since age two, would freeze up and start to cry when it was time to actually go. I didn’t want to have to force her onto the bus. When it was her turn to get on, she was hesitant because it was just so big, but then she climbed up with some friendly encouragement from the cheerful bus driver, and she found a seat right up front. She was all giant smiles when she waved good-bye.

Breanna started asking “Where Aylay?” before we even got in the front door. She really missed her big sister. And so.did.I. It was the longest seven hours of my life. I was actually okay, I didn’t even cry until Breanna took her nap and I was all alone in the living room – nap time is when Hayley and I would play games or do things that required a toddler-free zone, and it was strangely empty in my living room today.

The bus was due at 3 but by 2:15 I was understanding Hayley’s excitement that morning because I was suddenly incredibly excited that she was almost ready to come back home. By 2:30 I couldn’t stand it anymore and I put shoes on my feet and Breanna’s feet, and we went downstairs 25 minutes early and we walked up and down the sidewalk (Breanna picked flowers for Hayley, how cute!). I giggled a bit when George’s dad pulled up at 2:55 – he had brought over a stuffed animal Hayley had forgotten at their house but it was so cute how he had casually timed it for her arrival at home.

My second biggest fear was that she would get off the bus with red eyes, that she had been crying all day. She ended up bursting out of the bus doors like she’d been catapulted out, shrieking with excitement.

The best half hour of my day was sitting on the couch while she ate a popsicle, listening to her tell me all about her day. She told me about how nice the teacher is. How they sang songs and listened to stories. How she played with the wooden kitchen set, dollhouse, blocks, a rock collection, and some dinosaurs. How she already had a good friend*, how much she enjoyed the cafeteria, and how she loved running around playing ball and hopscotch at recess and lunch in the kindergarten yard.

The only other time that I cried was just a little bit while she was telling me all about the things she did, just because I was so proud of this big girl who had gone to school for seven hours for the first time and really enjoyed herself. She already can’t wait until Tuesday to go back.

I think Tuesday will be easier, but I’m really glad I get four whole days with her before that happens.

You may notice that she looks just a little excited.

It wasn’t raining like the forecast had predicted but I was glad I had stuffed her rain coat in her bag because it was surprisingly chilly outside.

(That tag that she’s wearing around her neck is her bus pass which helps the bus drivers and teachers make sure everyone is getting on the right bus until everyone is used to where they’re supposed to be.)

I have a school set on Flickr right here. I even have a few pictures up there of the classroom when I went the other night – it’s pretty cool!

*Can I just mention that I am ecstatic that her new friend is one of the two girls who got on and off at her stop? As in she lives in the next building? Hallelujah!

I may fall over dead from the cuteness. I was getting frustrated with Hayley for jumping all over the furniture (and I can’t take her out to the park until later because it’s almost Breanna’s nap time) so to avoid yelling too much on the last day before school, I suggested, through clenched teeth, that she go lie down on her blanket on the floor and look at some books for awhile to practice for the half hour of Quiet Time that they do at the school after lunch.

I just went into her room and both Hayley and Breanna are lying on their backs on Hayley’s quilt (which she had spread on her floor last night in the hopes that her grandfather, who babysat yesterday while George and I visited the school, would sleep over, hee!), flipping through books together. Occasionally I hear a mild scuffle when they both want the same book, but generally it’s very cute.

Breanna’s going to miss Hayley even more than I will tomorrow.

What are YOU blogging about on October 15, 2007?

My friend Heather is running a contest where you can win a nifty t-shirt over on her chocolate blog. Go check out the rules to enter!

A few days ago, I took this picture of Hayley:

Her hair grows fast and since I had cut her hair back in March, it was already getting long again. Actually, hang on, I’m a little stunned at how quickly it grew. Anyway, brushing it was once again becoming an exercise in patience – for myself and also for all the neighbours within a hundred yards who could hear her screaming and wailing. The thought of having to deal with that every morning before school was enough to make me consider dreads just to avoid ever brushing it again.

Instead of dreads, after Breanna woke up from her nap, I left her at home with George and Hayley and I walked to the salon and I got her hair cut. I could have theoretically done it myself but I figured she’d enjoy the experience and she really did, even though she was shy.

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With school starting in just over a week (*breathe in, breathe out, don’t panic, she’ll be fine*), I thought that maybe we should start practicing for what mornings will be like at that time. Other than the occasional early morning doctor’s appointment, we’ve never had to get up and GO so mornings are usually pretty laid back. We get up, we stay in our pajamas, we eat a leisurely breakfast, we don’t rush because there’s no reason to rush. That all changes next week and I didn’t want it to be a big shock to Hayley. I also didn’t want to spend her first day of school yelling at her to hurry up, hurry up, let’s GO now.

I didn’t bother with getting her up at 6:30 (because I was still sleeping and the thought of purposely getting up at the crack of dawn when we don’t actually need to made me want to cry a little), but we did do the basic routine. I sent Hayley back to bed and told her we would pretend it was school. I “woke” her up and told her to come on out to the kitchen. I offered her three choices of breakfast (two different cereals and a PB&J sandwich) and when she chose one of the cereals, I set her bowl out and told her to eat her breakfast while I got dressed.

When she was done, I sent her to her room where I had laid out some clothes for her (not her actual school clothes, mind you) and she got dressed. I brushed her hair, which is still a nightmare and I look forward to getting it CUT, we brushed her teeth, and then she was finished! I explained to her that during school weeks I would prepare her lunch the night before and put it all in the fridge, and then transfer it to a lunch box in the morning for her so that she would just need to put on her shoes, grab her lunch box and her bag, and go. I also pointed out to her that she had gotten through the routine in about half an hour and so if we were up an hour before bus time, she’d have plenty of time to relax. Of course, I realize that when she’s woken up at 6:30 we’ll likely have a much slower start, hence the extra time!

Later today we’re going to look for some pictures to represent her morning routine and we’ll glue them to a sheet of construction paper and hang it on the fridge (or maybe her door; Breanna’s fond of removing things from the fridge door) so that she has a visual reminder of everything she has to do each day.

It’s good for me to practice too. I’m not used to so much action in the morning either. I’ll have to get used to not checking my email until AFTER the bus has picked her up.

*******

In about an hour we’re going to head out to find her some pants and more shirts for school. I can’t believe she has ten days left before the big day. *Sniff* I’m both excited for her and sad at the same time. I think that may be a common theme around here for awhile. Eventually it will just become about as normal as anything else around here but for now it’s still such a big deal and I expect to write about it for awhile.

I think that Sheryl over at Paper Napkin came up with the best description of what this feels like to me. In this entry she wrote:

I, on the other hand, hide in the bathroom and breathe into a paper bag as often as I can, without arousing suspicion. You’d think they were being deployed to Iraq on Tuesday.

That’s pretty damn accurate. It’s like I logically know that it’s Just School. Hell, even more than that it’s Just Kindergarten, it’s not as though she’s packing up and heading off to boarding school or moving three provinces over to attend university. She’s getting on a yellow school bus and going to elementary school in the same city and at the end of the day she’ll come home and tell me all about her day and the friends she’s made, and she’ll bring me pictures made out of macaroni and glue. It’s not the end of the world.

But man, after spending every day with her for almost five years (oh, and there’s another thing, she turns five in exactly one month), it’s going to be a mighty big deal next Thursday.

Okay, back to breathing and perhaps writing a list of the stuff we need to buy when we head out.

Hayley’s starting school in less than two weeks, so we’ve been getting ready for that. One thing is accumulating the dress code appropriate clothes that she needs. Today she got some short sleeve white shirts and a navy tunic. She still needs two pairs of pants, one more short sleeve shirt and several long sleeve shirts, and we need some socks to wear with the tunic for now, tights for colder weather. In the meantime, she was really excited to try on the tunic and the polo shirt. She loves it.

I think I hate it only because my child, who will only turn five in a month and two days, suddenly looks about seven years old. Sheesh.

Meanwhile, you’d think at least my toddler would still look like a little girl. After all she does still have the chunky little legs and she’s still learning to talk (the explosion of vocabulary she’s going through is a post for another time). But then I gave the kids a bath and I put Breanna into her new little nightgown, and cute as it may all be, she too looks suddenly older.

I just want to know who it was that let my two little girls grow up so much all of a sudden. Because it certainly wasn’t ME giving permission.

Jessica is asking us what brings us joy. She’d like to know what brings us joy in our everyday life, our wealth, our health, our homes, our interests. How about all of the above?

Everyday joys – Having two young kids is frustrating sometimes but it brings the most incredibly happiness too, things that I never could have imagined before. Just today I can think of so many things they said or did that brought joy to that moment: Hayley, playing cat and insisting that her snack be a bowl of dry Honey-Nut Cheerios so she could eat out of the bowl on the floor like a cat (and yes, I obliged!). Breanna, running up behind me as I cleaned the floor on my hands and knees, throwing her arms around me and screaming, “‘ug! ‘Ug!” as she hugged me. Hayley remembering about 90% of the bus safety rules that I was teaching her before she heads off to school, and seeing how proud she was to know them. Breanna practically rolling her eyes back in her head as she said, “Mmmmmmm” while eating her breakfast. Hayley making a bed on the floor for her sister and trying to put her down to nap. Breanna asking her sister, “Oo alrigh?” when Hayley started crying after banging her foot on the bookshelf. Etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum.

Some days the frustration never ends. Luckily, neither do the little moments like those.

Wealth – I don’t really know what wealth is. I do get joy out of getting paid for my other blogs that I write. Getting paid for something I love to do is amazing. Even more though, I get joy from a very simple and relatively cheap thing – I love slipping into the dollar store and getting a pack of crayons or markers and some drawing pads or colouring books, and bringing them home. I loved walking into a store a couple of months ago and finally finding a little stuffed Orca that Hayley had been wishing for since seeing Free Willy. I loved finding a little flashlight with interchangeable covers that cast shadows of different Dora characters and seeing Breanna nearly explode in joy when I gave it to her. I would love to know what it’s like to have wealth that means big houses and travel and total financial freedom, but most days, it’s buying little things that I know my kids will love that gives me incredibly joy.

Wellness – Lately I’ve been walking a bit more than the usual romp to the park and although I dreaded each trek before it started, I ended up feeling incredibly pleased and revitalized after each walk was over. A little tired, yes, especially the one day that it was eleventy billion degrees with humidity outside, but it just felt so good to go out and walk at a good, aerobic pace without anyone to slow me down. If I could just remember how good exercise makes me feel, I might keep doing it more!

Home – I get joy from seeing toys in my living room. Not all of them out all across the floor at once, but I love seeing toys and knowing that it means I have two kids in my home. On the opposite side of the coin, I get great joy from picking everything up in the evening and seeing a nice, big, clean living room. I am a bit of a housekeeping dork. I don’t like to DO the housework, but (much like the exercise) once I get started, I don’t mind so much and I find myself pleased as all hell when everything is done. Today I was ecstatic that I got my bathtub sparkling clean and shiny (after letting it slide a bit too long) and that the new cleaning wipes I bought made the kitchen glow. I know, how June Cleaver of me.

Interests – Where do I start and how do I finish? I get joy from blogging here, naturally, or else I wouldn’t do it. I also get it from reading what others have to say whether it’s in their own blog or here in my comments. I find joy in taking pictures, even if I’m no pro, just having a snapshot in time makes me happy (and the incredible amount of CDs that have my pictures burned on them would be testament to that!). I find joy in a good book (hello all those hours and HOURS where the Harry Potter series consumed me!), in a good movie, and in cooking. Part of it is just because I wouldn’t do all those things if they didn’t make me happy, but these days it’s also a joyful experience because it’s when I get to step back from being Mom for a short moment or two, and I get to be Sherry again. Just Sherry, doing what she loves to do.

So what it all comes down to is that I find joy in a multitude of ridiculously simple things. It doesn’t take much does it?

Jessica wanted to know because she wants to bestow a free gift of a JOYS filing system. I have heard more than one person sing the praises of JOYS. Do you know why I hope I win the gift? Because this is what my current “filing system” looks like.

Also known as, stuff it in my desk drawers, remember that it’s there, and try to find it later. This system is why George and I tore the entire apartment apart, trying to find Hayley’s school supply list and paperwork a few weeks ago. It was after 24 hours of panic that I remembered it was attached to a clipboard in the very bottom of my drawer. Yeah.

So cross your fingers. CLEARLY we require a system that actually works without producing extra grey hairs and panic attacks.

PC Magazine lists the ten weirdest USB devices. I particularly like the fondue pot, and the thumb drive that actually looks like a thumb fits my sense of humour.

1. This morning, I was trying to avoid getting up because I didn’t sleep well last night. I laid in bed for awhile and Breanna sat beside me, entertaining herself. At one point, I opened up one eye to see what it was that was keeping her so content. She was sitting up in bed, playing with a calculator and had my Star Trek Technical Manual open in her lap.

Clearly, being a total dork is genetic.

2. George made a cheese omelet in the microwave this morning. Although Breanna had already eaten half a bagel, she climbed up on my lap to eat some of the omelet so George put some on a little plate for her. She’s still not very handy with a fork, so she dropped a few pieces on the floor before I managed to show her how to stab the pieces with her fork. Those dropped pieces bothered her so much though, that she kept saying, “Mommy! Uh-oh! Daddy, Daddy! UH-OH!” I reassured her that it was fine and I would pick them up when she was done.

Then when she was finished eating, Breanna – with all her OCD tendencies that I always joke about – hopped down to the floor, squatted down to inspect the egg on the floor, exclaimed, “Oh NO!” and then picked up one piece at a time. With each piece, she announced, “gaw-bage!” and then trotted over to throw the offending egg into the garbage. My floor is all clean and I didn’t have to do a thing other than applaud Breanna. I’m wondering how soon I can teach her to stand at the sink and wash my dishes.