Starting School, for Realsies

Dear Babes,
(I am writing this months after the fact, I will not relinquish this diary for you both to the busy minutia of life.  I sware!) 

Big events in the Thompsons.  You are both at the same school this year!  Excitement built days before the big launch to two Thompsons in all day school.  You created your first days signs, cultivated your look for the first day and cleaned out book bags readying lunch boxes. For Henry this was an old hat, but admittedly with new hair.  This summer we allowed you to try dying your hair various colors.  First it was cyan, then purple for the first day of school.  Hazel patiently waited through a small bleach and reddened strip after your pro haircut.  I feel mama did a pretty great job for a first time. 

Daddy and I shared in the first day send off and brought you into school.  You two hugged and went to your respective rooms.  Hazel you couldn't really wait for us to leave and you were already gathering friends around you.  You were gung ho for about three days and then excited exhaustion bore down and you begged to just stay home with mama.  I had to vow each morning to snuggle time immediately after returning home from pick up.  I don't mind that one bit.

Teachers told me that you, Henry would check in on Hazel during the day that first week.  About three weeks in Hazel, you told me that, "during the day you go to Henry's cubby and smell the stuff in it because you miss Henry so much.  Though your classrooms are next door to each other you don't get the opportunity to be with each other frequently.  When it came time for passions class, though, the second and third cycles you were in the same classroom.  That was exciting for your both for a short time.

As far as mama, I have been working the photography game as much as possible.  I have had a lot of work!  I have almost been too busy to notices the difference but I do notice.  I miss the cuddle time in the after noon with your sweet lil arms wrapped around me.  On the days I don't have any work, I don't have any appointments, I don't have a project I feel a little lost without my two buddies.  I look forward to picking you up each day and sometimes it is hard to just wait until 3:20. 

I have taken up volunteering in your kindergarten classroom, Hazel.  I help and work with mostly other students but I feel my little magnet pulling me in all day.  I have made lots of little friends but when it is cool down time after play time it is my little buddy I sprawl on the floor with for a quick cuddle. 

I can't believe we are here.  All the basic firsts checked off  the long list.  Now, we just wait as you get older and older and forge your own life and relationships.  It is all good, but, admittedly, if I ruminate too long I might feel a little tear slip down my face. 
I love you both so much.  I love seeing your successes this year at school. 
Love, Mommy

New Starts

Dear Peach, 

It is happening.  The day I thought would never get here, the day that I didn't want to get here, the day I couldn't wait to get here all rolled into one.  You are enrolled at TPS, with your big brother next year!!! He will be in 4th grade and you will be in kindergarten.  We went to your orientation after two false starts, due to me getting the date wrong and the other a power failure at the school and they had to move the date.  You could barely contain yourself with disappointment at the cancellation conversely a week later with elation to attend the orientation. You picked a special dress, you did your hair and you worked to get out of the house early.  We entered the building and our fearless, intelligent and kind principal and you shrieked at each other with joy and gave big hugs, with all standers-by welcoming that, "Hazel is finally going to be here!!"  The teachers and students already know you by name, of course. Your goal for the orientation was to make some friends and two 1st grade guides stuck to you like glue...but your brother felt he wanted to show you around and guided you to the art and music room through the cafeteria and where you could go to the bathroom if you had to go while at school.  You had a great 7 months where you attended a lovely short half day kindergarten, and you were so tired at the end of the day.  I hope your excitement and enthusiasm carry you through the long day of school, friends, play and learning.  I know this is all going to be an adjustment.  Our entire schedule will be different, and mommy's life is going to change.  I have already been doing more photos for people and volunteering at the school with the middle level (and I was so impressed and need to be a part of that).  I am sad that my official stay at home mom days are over. I am guessing the first year your breaks from class, when the two of you are all mine, all day, are going to be little glistening jewels among the growing pains.  

   After your orientation we celebrated via a Chocolate Moose tradition, a dipped torch cone with eyeballs. It is official. I have two kids in school.  A boy. A girl.  They are super different from each other.  Super funny.  Super smart.  You are going to add a lot to the school my little sweetie, and they are going to add a lot to you. For that I am grateful. I will think of these days of just the two of us with lots of time to snuggle, over and over.  I asked you last night if you will still hold my hand after you start school. Sitting on my lab snuggled close, you pulled back and earnestly looked into my eyes. In your gentle caring manner you said, "Mama, I am getting bigger and I may not hold your hand anymore but I will still probably love you." (Two weeks before Henry entered Kindergarten he promised he would always hold my hand...it wasn't a two days into his first week and the promised changed.)  These changes are coming...and the girl who told me a month ago that she was worried that we wouldn't have enough cuddle time in the day so we would likely have to cuddle me as soon as she got home is going to shed and discard into my piles of Hazel's in all over her appearances.  Your constants are beautiful.  Caring, kind, loving, snugly, hilarious, a fantastical imagination and a gift of the gab, but as you said, you are growing up.  The spaces where I fit will fill in with other wonderful things.
Love, Mama