Natalia the first grader!

We just survived our first week of first grade.  Meaning Natalia has been gone all day for school now!  (What an adjustment let me tell you)  And boy what a week it was!!

First of all on Friday the 7th we had her meet and greet at school.  We found her classroom, met her new teacher, dropped of supplies, found her desk/cubby, and filled out paperwork.  As I brought up last post, I've been struggling with the idea of her being gone all day and her making friends.  I was so happy to see that she actually had five other kiddos from her kindergarten class in her new class.  Two of them were two really good/smart girls.  I've been in contact with one of their moms since then.  She was actually the first little kiddo we met the day of kindergarten orientation.  Keely (the mom) introduced Molly to Natalia and asked if it would be ok if they stood together in line that first day of school in kindergarten.  It was so cute.  So I messaged her and we are going to set up play dates for them so they can be buddies.  She also has another little girl just Lydia's age so the four of them would probably play so well together.

Monday morning Charlie left for Boston at 4:30am... he was going to be gone all week for work, so I was on my own until Friday.  I wasn't looking forward to this at all.  Not only do I hate when he's gone all week, but now we were going to be pushed back into schedule after eight weeks of no schedule.  So I knew it was going to be a tough exhausting week.

Tuesday night, my dear sweet sister in law went into labor with their precious little girl.  She was only 24 weeks 2 days.  The doctors did everything they could to hold it off.  They managed to do so for two days, giving them enough time to do rounds of antibiotics and steroids for lung development.  Thursday morning I get the text that there was nothing more they could do and she would be coming that afternoon.  I called my mother in law because she was at the hospital with Steph and John was on the way there with Cypress.  She was going to take Cypress home and I thought it was more important for her to stay with Steph.  I had actually been struggling with what I thought were cold germs for a couple of days so I had stayed away from the hospital and family just in case... but at that point I didn't care.  I told her I wanted to take Cypress and that she should stay, that it was important she be with Steph post delivery.  (I was bawling, I couldn't help myself).  So I went and grabbed Cypress from John and brought her home with us.  The whole day was a blur of texts message updates as labor progressed.  Lydia started to feel pretty crummy and just laid on the couch all day.  So Quinton and I entertained Cypress as best we could.  Finally at 1:29pm, baby girl was born.  She is 1.9lbs and the teeny tiniest thing you've ever seen.  She will be in the NICU probably until November until she is big and strong.  If you are the praying type, keep her in your prayers.  Her name is Bodhi Dae.  Bodhi is a type of tree, and so is Cypress.  Dae is the female version of David which is John's middle name.  We're hoping to go visit them tomorrow! (I'll post pictures in my August Insta catch up)

Ok, now onto my school stories! First day of school means our usual pictures with my sign.

I'd originally made this with the wrong date.  OOPS!! 

Here we go off to First Grade!

She was so stinking excited!  She actually decided to do hot lunch that day.  We still send two snacks to school with them, one for after each recess until they get a little more adjusted to being gone all day.  Thank goodness because she didn't eat much of her lunch it sounds like.  And, each day really has been a struggle to get her to eat enough at school whether it's been a hot lunch day or a cold lunch day.  I think she just eats so quickly and if kids start getting up she does too so she can go play.  She sits by different kiddos each day from what I can tell.  I don't really understand the system of how it works yet.  I know they are supposed to sit by their class, and they line up alphabetically and the kiddos who get hot lunch split off while the kiddos with cold lunch go sit down.  One day she said there weren't seats by her class after she got her hot lunch so she sat by London (a boy from her old kinder class?? I don't know)  anyway, I think once I start volunteering I'll get a better feel for what goes on during school and how lunch happens. And will know what questions to ask to get stories out of her for how her day went.  Right now it's a lot of I don't remembers.  ha ha ha.  Today (Friday) she finally got to sit next to Molly. =)  Charlie wants me to stop pushing the friendship.  I just want to make sure that they aren't being too shy (because they both are and even Natalia told me she's too shy to ask Molly things) and give them a chance to get to know each other better.

Walking to school and lining up to go into class.  That's Molly behind her.  

When lunch time came and it was just Lydia and Quinton it was so almost weird!  I'm still not quite used to making lunch for just the three of us.  Shouldn't seem like that big of a difference, but it really is! The first afternoon Lydia and I did about 10 different puzzles.  She loves doing them and is actually pretty good at it.  It's been quite the adjustment of finding things to do for the afternoon.  We usually run errands in the morning, and she will start dance next month on Wed mornings, and Preschool on Tue/Thur mornings, so that will help fill some time up.  =)

So since it was Monday, I've kept up with having my Grandma come Monday mornings and I usually run errands while she is with Lydia and Quinton.  I kept them going hoping that I can go back to volunteering on Mondays.  =) 

While out I ran across this adorable little doll set that I just knew Natalia would love.  So being the mommy that I am I figured her first real day of school all day long deserved some sort of celebration right?  This won't be an every year thing on the first day of school, just this year because going to school all day long for the first time is kind of a big deal.  At least it was for me! 

So I left it on her car seat to find when I picked her up.  I seriously counted down the minutes (and did all week long starting about 2:45pm) to when we could go pick  her up.  It's been so weird not having her home.  They did a lock down drill on Wednesday, I saw the police cars there as we were leaving (and we got an email on Monday saying they would do it sometime that week) so I knew what was going to happen.  I knew how much the practice her teacher had them do on Tuesday scared her.  So I was so worried about her Wednesday and if she was scared.  It was so not fun having to wait all stinking day long to ask her about it.   I'm sure as the next couple of weeks go on it'll start to feel normal... and then of course Lydia will start preschool and it'll be just me and Quinton and then I might freak out all over again! ha ha ha. 

Why do my babies have to grow up so stinking fast?!?!?! 

I tried to make her two meals at home special her first day.  I surprised her with cinnamon rolls for breakfast (her favorite) and then she requested spaghetti and meat balls for dinner.  She was starving at dinner and scarfed so much spaghetti it was crazy! 

And then there's this cute little messy face!  He ate a ton of spaghetti, then when I thought he was done I handed him is bowl and fork and he ate a ton more.  And made a mess... but what an adorable mess.  Every baby needs a messy face picture right??  

 So now Charlie is home, and we are starting the weekend.  My mom is in town now and is actually staying a little longer than usual which will be super nice.  I'm anxious to see what week two will be like at school.  So far we haven't had to do homework, but I'm sure that's about to change!!