And just like that, it was the first day of school. Mallory was heading to third grade (and a new school!) and Carson was heading to KINDERGARTEN!
Both kids have been very excited about school starting. Mallory woke up Monday morning [the day before school started] and said “I wish it was TOMORROW already!!!” and on the first day of school, Carson woke up and said “I am just SO tired but not so tired I need to go back to sleep but I need to stretch because I need energy for the PLAY-ground.”
I didn’t even get any getting off the bus pictures because both kids just ran off the bus and headed home. But as I’m finally writing about this 2 weeks into the school year, all seems well with both kids. I’ve finally instituted a stricter bedtime for both children. I’d never really worried about Carson since I figured he’d sleep at preschool if he was tired, but that’s not an option anymore so for everyone’s sake, 8p it is.
The bonus to all of this is that Mallory has responded to a strict bedtime BEAUTIFULLY! No more dragged out bedtime routines, no more morning meltdowns. It’s only been 7 days since we started it, but it’s been seven days of Heaven for Rick in the morning and me at night. It’s easy to be this way with the days getting shorter and cooler so we’ll see how I handle it in the spring (it will probably involve getting Mallory blackout shades for her bedroom) but I will fully embrace the success right now. Go us.
The kids seem to love school so far and reports are that both kids are doing well and being good! We have Carson’s kinderagrten picnic thing tomorrow and it will be fun to see the difference from how it was 4 years ago for us. When Mallory started kindergarten, we only knew one boy in her class (or grade for that matter!) and she didn’t really KNOW him know him, so everything was new for all of us. Now, after a couple years of t-ball and little league in Dexter, plus knowing families of Mallory’s friends, Carson walked into kindergarten with a whole different set up than his sister did. So the picnic tomorrow night should be more social than 2011’s version was :-)