First days

After a fantastic summer and an amazing two weeks between the end of camps and school starting, we have begun some big transitions around here.  Namely, Little G started school yesterday and today (yesterday was a 45 minute open house where I went in with him and we met his guide [teacher] and brought in our extra clothes and nap items, etc. and found our hook/cubby - today and tomorrow are half days and Friday is a full day).

The Ladybug is going through a big transition as well.  We are participating in a nanny share with our good friends (who happen to be our neighbors) who's son (who I will nickname "Blue Eyes") is four months older than the Ladybug.   While the nanny has spent some time in the afternoons with the Ladybug, yesterday was her first day spending 6 hours at our neighbor's house with the nanny and Blue Eyes.

Today was the first day we all had to get out of the house to go to school.  My husband, bless his amazing heart, gets up and is out of our house by 6:18am so that he can be home by 6:00pm.  This means that the morning routine has always been my responsibility (except on the weekends...oh the glorious weekends when I get to totally sleep in because my aforementioned awesome husband wakes up with our children and lets me sleep.  Dear God, I love him!!)

Anyway, since this is only day 1 (or 2 depending on how you look at it) of transition for everyone, I braced myself for challenge.  It wasn't too bad, but I thought you'd get a kick out of the email I sent to my husband detailing our morning (note: I don't normally send anything this detailed about our mornings, in fact by the time we actually get to communicate on a daily basis, other than me grunting at him from the bed as he sneaks off to work before the sun has risen, I've already forgotten the morning and moved on with my life):

--------------------------------------------

Ladybug woke up just as you walked out the door, so 6:19ish? (I would know but Little G knocked over my clock yesterday at 6:37am and now it only tells the correct time twice a day)

Fed Ladybug and snuggled a bit in rocking chair.

Took Ladybug to our room and let her play while I got dressed.

Took Ladybug to her room to get her dressed and Little G got up and walked out of his room.  It was approx 6:55.

Suggested to Little G that we go downstairs and have breakfast and then watch Mr Rogers to which he suggested we watch Mr Rogers and then have breakfast. Upon my not agreeing with that suggestion the wailing started.  Then he semi-agreed with me but wanted to watch Cars.  I suggest we watch Cars when he gets home from school instead of quiet time (stupid. stupid. stupid.) Of course, he agrees.

7:00, we are downstairs and I finally get him to agree that we will have breakfast first, then TV.  I suggest I am making pancakes for Ladybug [I make large batches of Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes and freeze them so I can pull them out and microwave them quickly for breakfasts], would he want one. He says "no".  I suggest pancakes and/or a banana or yogurt or toast or cereal to which he replies, he wants oatmeal.

Start to make oatmeal at 7:05.

7:12, still making oatmeal, Little G is now insisting that we watch Cars after breakfast.

7:18 I have extra pancake for Little G (because I never expected him to refuse it) and 1/2 banana.  I suggest he start eating that so when oatmeal is ready, he can eat that with enough time to watch Mr Rogers.

7:19 He has major fit because he wanted oatmeal

7:22 he FINALLY realizes I AM making him oatmeal

7:25 I realize oatmeal isn't going to be cool enough to eat until at least 7:45, Mr Rogers is a 30 minute program and we need to head out to the car at 8:05

7:29 I turn on TV and tell Little G we're doing something special today that we won't be doing tomorrow: we will turn on Mr Rogers and I will bring over his table and chair and he can eat his breakfast while he watches

7:32 (seriously, it takes 3 minutes to turn on TV and get to Amazon Prime option and start streaming) Little G finally starts watching Mr Rogers!!

7:35 I get Little G dressed while he watches Mr Rogers

7:40 I put food on his little table and remind him we have to eat our breakfast because when Mr Rogers is over we have to leave for school

I clean up the Ladybug (who's been eating a banana and a pancake all this time) and put her on the floor and pour my coffee

7:45 I redirect the Ladybug from living room since she's obsessed with pushing and pulling Little G's table away from him

8:01 Mr Rogers is over - Little G is not done eating and has made that very clear to me.  I play it cool and suggest that he let me know when he's ready to put his rain boots on

8:05 We're heading out the door into torrential rain...I am very thankful for forgetting to move car out back.

8:07 Torrential rain has stopped for enough time for me to snap a first-day-of-school picture

8:08 We're on our way to school - the radio czar has declared no music allowed

At some point (stopped caring about time as long as I made it between 8:20 and 8:40) I drop off Little G at school.  The director of the school comes out to meet us [drop off is defined as "rolling" in that all I have to do is pull up the car and someone comes and gets Little G out of the car] .  I quickly realize just how dirty the back of the car is.  Eep.

I leave school drop off and discover new, faster, less scary way home (i.e. no needing to have to wait in line while people try to turn left twice where people don't use their blinkers at two consecutive weird intersections)

8:28 - The Ladybug starts crying because she is exhausted - we are at least 10 minutes away from home.

8:35 - I call the nanny as the Ladybug stops crying.  I leave message to see if it is ok to bring Ladybug straight over and put her down for nap - I mention I will call one of Blue Eyes's mommies to confirm if this is ok even though she requested that we not show up until 9 the first two weeks [Blue Eyes is our neighbor's first child and has been home with his mommies for 14 months, so he's going to have a much harder transition to nanny than we are, thus we have agreed to let him be with the nanny exclusively for the first hour of the day]

8:36 - I call our neighbor and leave message to see if it is ok with her

8:41 - I pull up in front of house and the nanny calls and says it is fine with her; I let her know that I haven't heard back from our neighbor, so I will take the Ladybug inside and nap her here and bring her over when she wakes up

8:45 - I feed the Ladybug 5 oz of milk and she falls asleep immediately - phone rings while I am feeding her and our neighbor leaves message

8:50 - I check message from our neighbor who says it is fine to bring over the Ladybug so I send her a text telling her I brought her here to our house

8:45 - 10:40 - the Ladybug is STILL SLEEPING!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------

So yeah...busy morning.  And I have to turn around in less than an hour and go get Little G since today's only a 1/2 day!

I'm not sure I would have ever been able to wrap my mind around the logistics of getting out of the house in the morning with a preschooler and 10 month old back when Little G was just a baby.

Thankfully, like most endurance challenges, I've been working up to this for three years.