Day 1 of Fall '07

In light of my spirit of confession and keeping it real, I thought I'd share a peek into the window of what actually happened on the first day of our new routine.

Seeing as how I stayed up until 5 am finishing our new fall schedule, today did not get off to a pristine start. I laid down for a nap at about 5.15 am and was awakened by Sumo, right on schedule, around 7 am.

I made him lay there with me until 8.30 am at which point he convinced me that he was dying laying there and that he just had to play with his "Mac"truck. This has been his routine for awhile - mostly because I've not been disciplined enough to have structure first thing in the morning. He normally wakes up and has me go to the forbidden closet that holds all of the toys the boys fight over special toys, pulls out his precious "Mac", and proceeds to enjoy time alone with his favorite toys and figurines from the movies "Cars" and "Toy Story".

You can imagine his face this morning as it curled up in pain when I told him that we were going to do something different - I was going to read to him. His eyes said it all - READ!?!?!? INSTEAD OF PLAYING WITH MY TOYS...OH LAWD NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

He quickly submitted to the idea and settled in to enjoy the story. We read Runaway Bunny, which is on the BFIAR booklist. He loved it. Even though he had to give up his "Mac" for a time, it seemed in the end he felt like the trade was worth it. He got completely unadulterated private time with his Mommy. That was the idea. I felt like I had nailed it. Come to think of it, he never even asked for his "Mac" for the balance of the day.

The rest of the morning was a different story. Because I had gotten out of bed later than planned, I just chunked the rest of the morning. The boys and I ran out of the door and headed to the Barnes & Noble Storytime. Followed by a trip to the local produce market, the boys were hungry and tired. I fed 'em lunch and put 'em down. Completely off schedule and completely wonderful!

Almost forgot, we didn't do serious curriculum, preschool, activity, circle time stuff today but I did do a tidbit of Little Hands to Heaven at the kitchen table. It was a blast watching the boys repeat after me, learning the finger play.

I also got a chance to play a couple of games of "Memory" with Sumo while Kano got a headstart on his nap. He's got to fall asleep first b/c if not, he spends the entire naptime trying to wake Sumo up!

Sumo was completely thrilled at his ability to remember the pictures and find the match. His mother was too. It was a joy and privilege to roll around on the floor with him enjoying his 4-year-old-ness...even if it was off schedule.

Gracie and I did meet to go over her work for the day. She seemed to be ready to roll after a few days of me nagging her gently hinting to her about the official start of our school year. Around our house, we are always doing something. I keep a basket of library books for my bigs and another basket of books for the littles in the living room so that there are always interesting things to read. Somehow, though, the official notice of ramping up our schoolwork slowly with a few subjects at a time seemed destable. I can't imagine why :)

Even though she seemed reluctant, last night, she hit it this morning and got much accomplished in a short bit of time (mental note to blog about our curriculum choices in another post). I was very proud of her for being so self-motivated and putting her petal to the metal. This is NOT the same child we took out of school in the middle of her sixth grade year four and half years ago.

I did get a few moments to myself this afternoon although I didn't get that much needed nap.

The rest of the evening went smoothly, although again not perfectly. Gracie did do computer work with Sumo (free JumpStart CD from Chick-Fil-A Kids meal) even though it happened like two hours after it should have. He loved his time with his big sis.

We did eat about six but it was very boring b/c I warmed up leftovers. Why? I didn't take time for my dinner prep in the AM!

All is well though, Daddy decided to show up and surprise us with BBQ. On second thought, maybe all wasn't well. I'm haven't been off to a good start in the food department :( Bless hubby for being so thoughtful though. I didn't have the heart to let his gift go to waste :) ....whoo!...that sounds like another blog in the making.

The boys got in the bed at 8.45 pm. Still enough time for me to relax and blog. It's now 9:30 pm. I'm technically supposed to get ready for bed before getting stuck sitting at the computer and blogging. Even bedtime has ended up being out of order. But it's still fairly early and I'm off to get some sleep so tomorrow can be a little closer to the plan.