First Day of School 2013

The Harding - Wheeler's seem to do everything just a little bit differently than most families. There is just a tiny bit more chaos reigning in our home, more quirks that prevent us from having the ordinary experiences depicted in books and on TV. This is my 10th First day of school since having the kids. It all began with Peter heading off to Bright Beginnings when he was 3. I knew his teachers, knew his classmates, loved the school, was confident in his placement and was as prepared and ready as a mom can be on the first day of school. Then the bus showed up and I completely lost it! I held Molly on my hip and sobbed as my little boy suddenly rode off with a complete stranger at the wheel to a destination controlled by other people with influences that were no longer solely mine. The sobbing lasted about 2 minutes until my dad - who had come over to watch Peter get on the bus for his first day - patted my back grabbed Molly from me and told me to "get over it!" I did. We went to breakfast and within 20 minutes of arriving home from breakfast Peter was back on the same bus fast asleep with his  Bob the Builder backpack on his lap.
This year involved many firsts in our house - Molly moved up to her 1st year in Middle School, the twins were in "real" school for the 1st time as they started Kindergarten, all five kids were taking the bus to school for the 1st time, Ellie, Annie and Lizzie were all in the same grade for the 1st time and, best of all, as we delivered each child to their classroom on the 1st day they each walked confidently in to their classrooms and waved goodbye. No tears, no request that we stay - we officially have big kids who know their job for the days is now to be in school learning. It was amazing. I embarrassed the kids by holding Bob's hand all through the school yesterday just reveling in how lucky we are. Each child was met by a teacher who enveloped them in a bear hug, each child knew who their support people were and felt assured of the care and love they would receive at school that day and each of them knew of four other students in the school who would be there if they needed them - their siblings. It was a wonderful first day at an amazing school filled with dedicated staff and teachers who demonstrated very clearly how happy they were to be there and how safe and protected our kids would be. I am in awe of teachers! They have a difficult job day to day and I only hope they realize how far reaching their lessons are for our kids!

So that being said - there were many many many barriers to our perfect first day of school! I awoke at 5am to prepare myself for the morning with the kids. I turned on CNN, made a smoothie, looked through previous first day of school pictures and then set about waking everyone up at 6am. They all woke up with great enthusiasm (okay - that line was just for effect!) with the exception of poor Annie who awoke with hives. A quick Aveeno bath (because Benadryl was out of the question on the 1st day of school) and she seemed to be doing okay. I fed everyone breakfast - the tiny boxes of sugary cereal that I bought as a treat for the first day went over like a lead balloon so I went back to the drawing board and ended up making waffles and a fruit salad. The little girls got dressed in their brand new uniforms and red shirts while the older kids grew anxious about the substitute uniforms I bought for them when the uniform company failed to deliver their "real" uniforms on time. Molly panicked that she would be in trouble and Peter was just annoyed at the "incompetence of the company who makes our uniforms"! With everyone dressed I made the brilliant decision to send the three little into the bathroom to brush their teeth - ALONE! A few minutes later I quickly changed the red shirts of Lizzie and Ellie because they had spilled all over them. At 7:15 we headed out to our new bus stop a few streets away. At 7:45 I called the bus company when the bus failed to show up. At 8am the bus finally showed up and the driver reported that although all 5 kids received postcards from the bus company with their stop and time on it, Peter and Molly were not on the list and the driver could not let them on the bus. After ten minutes of waiting for the driver to contact the company to allow the big kids on the bus we pulled all five kids off the bus, loaded them back in the car and headed into Hartford at the peak of rush hour. We finally arrived at school to a huge traffic jam in front of the school - I did what any good mom would do for her 5 kids who were now devastated at not taking the bus and worried about how late they were for school - I threw the car into reverse on a one way street and parked illegally and then dragged them all 2 blocks up the street to the exact wrong entrance of the school. When we got there we hugged all of our friends who we had not seen for the summer, caught up a bit with teachers who have become so dear to us and delivered everyone to their classrooms. Then we headed to the front entrance and out the door for Bob and my traditional (for the last 2 years since all 5 kids have been in school) 1st day of school breakfast at New York Pickle Deli. The craziness didn't stop there. I got 2 e-mails and 1 phone call about Peter (issues with which classes he was in etc.), the school nurse called at 2 because molly threw up in her office and the bus arrived at the bus stop at exactly 4:55 - which meant the kids were on the bus for 1 hour and 40 minutes!

At dinner last night (taco Tuesday to celebrate!) when we did Best and Worst I fell in love with each and every one of my kids all over again because not one of them mentioned the obstacles of the day, the chaos or the choice words uttered by their mother in her dealings with a certain bus company. They each said that they had NO worsts for the day - only BESTS and lots of them. Annie was the line leader, she loved her lunch, is enamored with her teacher, saw her brother twice, loves the bus and thinks this is going to be the best year ever. Lizzie was nervous about a teacher she didn't know but thinks she is "so cool", has lots of her pre-k friends in her class, saw Annie and Ellie at recess, knew the answer to the story question, ate lunch in the cafeteria with her two sisters and found out that we can bring in cupcakes for her birthday in November. Peter got a visit from Mr. Mihalko (the principal - but for a good reason), saw Molly with Mr. B and he made a joke that Mr. B thought was hilarious, loves his new teachers, might not have to take music, hung out with Brian, saw Alajia and had an 8th grader tell him he was cool. Ellie Bean loved her new school shoes from Auntie Beth (her magic sparkle shoes), thinks her teacher is so nice, saw Mrs. Careiro twice, got to have recess with her sisters, loved the bus and fell asleep on Annie's shoulder on the way home on the bus. Molly is in heaven with Miss Politi (her new teacher), has Majesty in her class, gets to start up with violin again soon, eats lunch late so gets to have snack in her classroom, saw Mrs. Cohen and got to hug her, had 2 of her little sisters run over and hug her and everyone thought they were cute and thought the bus was awesome. I thought a successful day would be if they all came home alive but this was beyond my wildest expectations!

The three littles were ready to go to school!

We had to drive to the bus stop because it was rainy and the girls could not wait to head out. The one hold out was their brother who took the longest amount of time to get ready!!

My five gorgeous kids - ready for their 1st day of school! I could not be prouder!

Molly - girl! She was disappointed to not have her real uniform but I thought she looked gorgeous!

A few hugs for Daddy!

My sweet Annie Bananie - she was born to be in school!

Daddy and Ellie did some dancing at the bus stop - we were all a little bored waiting!

Annie is always up for a picture for Mommy - she melts my heart!

Ellie bean could not stop dancing in her magic sparkle shoes. She was very disappointed that she has gym today and could not wear them again!

Still waiting for the bus!

Lizzie getting some 1st day of school hugs from her big brother.

Our 2 Middle school kids ready for their day.

Getting on the bus!

The twins could not wait to get on the bus for their 1st ride to school.

The bus before we grabbed all the kids off of it and headed into Hartford in the car!

The five Harding - Wheeler kids not so happy that I stopped them one more time on the way into school after arriving 20 minutes late!

 

I am happy to report that the 2nd day of school went off without a hitch! The kids woke up happy and ready to take on another day of chaos but the bus showed up on time, they managed to brush their teeth before getting dressed, all the school supplies were accounted for, breakfast was quick and painless and uniforms were washed and ironed! Here's to another wonderful year at Noah Webster!

GNM - ILY!