Day #107: We Made it to the Last Day of School
To be fair, a month ago I could not have told you when the last day of school *was*, much less if we'd still be teaching then. We did our final Zoom chat. I felt guilty when a postcard arrived from the music teacher that we haven't been to the music Zooms in months, but they are at 3 p.m. and I can't do that. We did what we could and we survived.
Wednesday was pick up the stuff day. It was oddly stressful and I cried. We drove through the school parking lot, we had an assigned time and people told us where to go. Daddy was able to go with us because ours was first thing in the day. We handed back the library book and the reading book and were handed a plastic bag full of his work and stuff which I have not had the emotional capacity to open yet. Wednesday was really rough...fortunately a friend who comes from the mom group I had back in the early days when our now 6-year-olds were newborns came in the afternoon and met us for a ramble in the woods, that was DELIGHTFUL and turned the whole day around.
Today was the last official day and it was oddly unstressful, except that he was SO excited he woke up at 6 and I had to keep shushing him and sending him away from Max, who had been in my bed since 2:30 (more on Max sleeping issues in a minute.) He had prepped a little scavenger hunt and some questions about first grade for his 9:30 a.m. video chat and it seems to have gone well. We celebrated with the RBFs I had been promising him since Monday which turned out to be root beer floats.
I've had my moments where I grieve the loss of a normal school year ending for him, and I've had my moments where I don't care so much. The nice thing about having a kindergartner is he's never been through a last day of school before so doesn't know what it should be like and what he's missing. And we are now, as a friend says, at the beginning of a very long summer.
I don't know what to think about school in the fall. It's a giant swirling debate right now. The state is saying normal school year with masks and social distancing. The districts are saying hey, wait, we make that decision. The parents are all talking about forming ad hoc homeschool groups. For the moment..for the moment I am just going to let it lie. The present is busy enough. I will let the future take care of itself for a bit.
Max, meanwhile, has become an actual little person which is incredible. He talks in sentences now. I took them to the beach yesterday, it was so freaking gorgeous, and he loved watching the airplanes take off from the nearby airport. He kept pointing at them and waving bye bye and then getting mad when they wouldn't come back when he yelled at them to. He also has no patience for messes...mud stresses him out, sand on his shoes must be brushed of and walking through seaweed is for sure a now. Whereas James...wallows. James's bath tonight...ugh, that kid is so gross.
Josh says he thinks Max will be easier to manage when he gets older. James's explosive creativity and its ensuing messes stress Josh out. I said write down the date you said that please.
Oh, hey, I buried the lede! We can GET NEW LIBRARY BOOKS! The library opened for pick up and drop off this week. We went through our house and retrieved all the lost books and returned them. We are waiting a few days for pickup until Mama finishes reading and they get all our stuff ready for us. But this is the biggest and best step towards normalcy EVER. James was sad he couldn't go see the library staff but he wrote them a cute note.
As for why you haven't seen much of me, well, Max is having sleep issues. Getting him to go down at night has become a huge struggle and it's been a late night one, too...11, midnight. The long days don't help and he's also started taking long naps, more day night confusion like he's a tiny baby again. Hoping it's a short-lived phase. I never see my poor husband anymore. We attempted date night tonight. He crashed it.
For media consumption, I'm participating in the Queer Blackathon put on by an Instagrammer I follow, which has kept me off TV, yay! So today, in one day, I read George Johnson's memoir on growing up Black and Queer in America called All Boys Aren't Blue. And it was great. And now I'm working on the YA book I just bought You Should See Me in a Crown. Just started it. Also participating in the #12daysofannestagram on Instagram. James thinks me staging pictures of books outside is hilarious.
Today I'm grateful for my husband having the day off, root beer floats, a smiling James, time to read, history, good weather, beautiful things, and my babies. And health and safety on this crazy planet.
Wednesday was pick up the stuff day. It was oddly stressful and I cried. We drove through the school parking lot, we had an assigned time and people told us where to go. Daddy was able to go with us because ours was first thing in the day. We handed back the library book and the reading book and were handed a plastic bag full of his work and stuff which I have not had the emotional capacity to open yet. Wednesday was really rough...fortunately a friend who comes from the mom group I had back in the early days when our now 6-year-olds were newborns came in the afternoon and met us for a ramble in the woods, that was DELIGHTFUL and turned the whole day around.
Today was the last official day and it was oddly unstressful, except that he was SO excited he woke up at 6 and I had to keep shushing him and sending him away from Max, who had been in my bed since 2:30 (more on Max sleeping issues in a minute.) He had prepped a little scavenger hunt and some questions about first grade for his 9:30 a.m. video chat and it seems to have gone well. We celebrated with the RBFs I had been promising him since Monday which turned out to be root beer floats.
I've had my moments where I grieve the loss of a normal school year ending for him, and I've had my moments where I don't care so much. The nice thing about having a kindergartner is he's never been through a last day of school before so doesn't know what it should be like and what he's missing. And we are now, as a friend says, at the beginning of a very long summer.
I don't know what to think about school in the fall. It's a giant swirling debate right now. The state is saying normal school year with masks and social distancing. The districts are saying hey, wait, we make that decision. The parents are all talking about forming ad hoc homeschool groups. For the moment..for the moment I am just going to let it lie. The present is busy enough. I will let the future take care of itself for a bit.
Max, meanwhile, has become an actual little person which is incredible. He talks in sentences now. I took them to the beach yesterday, it was so freaking gorgeous, and he loved watching the airplanes take off from the nearby airport. He kept pointing at them and waving bye bye and then getting mad when they wouldn't come back when he yelled at them to. He also has no patience for messes...mud stresses him out, sand on his shoes must be brushed of and walking through seaweed is for sure a now. Whereas James...wallows. James's bath tonight...ugh, that kid is so gross.
Josh says he thinks Max will be easier to manage when he gets older. James's explosive creativity and its ensuing messes stress Josh out. I said write down the date you said that please.
Oh, hey, I buried the lede! We can GET NEW LIBRARY BOOKS! The library opened for pick up and drop off this week. We went through our house and retrieved all the lost books and returned them. We are waiting a few days for pickup until Mama finishes reading and they get all our stuff ready for us. But this is the biggest and best step towards normalcy EVER. James was sad he couldn't go see the library staff but he wrote them a cute note.
As for why you haven't seen much of me, well, Max is having sleep issues. Getting him to go down at night has become a huge struggle and it's been a late night one, too...11, midnight. The long days don't help and he's also started taking long naps, more day night confusion like he's a tiny baby again. Hoping it's a short-lived phase. I never see my poor husband anymore. We attempted date night tonight. He crashed it.
For media consumption, I'm participating in the Queer Blackathon put on by an Instagrammer I follow, which has kept me off TV, yay! So today, in one day, I read George Johnson's memoir on growing up Black and Queer in America called All Boys Aren't Blue. And it was great. And now I'm working on the YA book I just bought You Should See Me in a Crown. Just started it. Also participating in the #12daysofannestagram on Instagram. James thinks me staging pictures of books outside is hilarious.
Today I'm grateful for my husband having the day off, root beer floats, a smiling James, time to read, history, good weather, beautiful things, and my babies. And health and safety on this crazy planet.
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