First Full Week of School COMPLETE!

Even though this was the third week since school started, this week was our first full week of school where Justin was gone four mornings of the week and Katelynn was gone five full days. Everyone is doing great, and we are starting to get adjusted to our new routines. Here's a recap of what has been happening this week in our house!

Ryan

Ryan gets three hours of JUST Mommy time four days a week now. In all honesty, my plan was to do most of my errands and grocery shopping during this time since I would be two less kids, but so far that hasn't happened. I attempted to do this yesterday and ended up leaving the store due to a tantrum-screaming one-year old. I am chalking it up to being overtired though and am hoping we can spend one day each week doing errands in the near future. Along with a first full week of school, this week marks the end of nursing for Ryan. It has been some very hard nights where both he and I have gotten little sleep, and, therefore, he tends to need a morning nap before Justin is picked up. We have been at home after preschool drop-off just playing most of the week. In addition to his love for playing with balls, Ryan has started taking an interest in coloring with sidewalk chalk outside. I am honestly amazed at how young he is picking up on everything his siblings do and trying to participate in them. He will color on the driveway for a good 15 minutes before losing interest and never once attempt to put the chalk in his mouth.

Ryan also continues to be quite the dare devil. While his older siblings probably have a lot to do with his skills, we are still dropping our jaws at his attempts at climbing. I am pretty sure I was excited about Justin getting up on a step stool at 14 months of age. Ryan was up on the toliet seat the other night and is on our kitchen table at least once a day before we manage to get ahold of him. He's fast! Adding to that this week is his flexibility during diaper changes. I couldn't stop laughing this week when he was putting his feet behind his head during a diaper change!

As much as I miss the big kids while they are in school, I think it's going to be a lot of fun having one-on-one time with my little guy this schoolyear!

Justin

Justin is growing and changing everyday he goes to preschool. We are so proud of how well he is doing. The teacher says she wishes she had ten of him in class. He has been great at following directions and listening at school. He gets so excited to tell us all about his day and what he and his "friends" did at school. One of my favorite moments these past weeks is not just listening to what he has to tell me, but listening to Katelynn and Justin tell each other about their days when Katelynn gets home. Justin has started to bring home his schoolwork. This is by far my most favorite thing about preschool. His very first school project was a necklace that he made for me out of pieces of straw and dental floss. I had him model it since it was his very first piece of art he brought home.

One day this week Jonathan picked Justin up from school instead of me, and the minute he got home, he ran inside with this huge look of excitement on his face saying, "Mommy, Mommy, I have HOMEWORK!!!" This coming from my little boy who loses interest in learning to write the letter "J" after about three minutes. He wanted to work on his homework right away. There were two sheets and he sat and worked on them with me until they were completely done (which was not required that he finish both that night). He was very proud of himself and couldn't wait to show Katelynn what he had done. He also talked a lot about the science experiment they did at school where they put an egg in vinegar and were going to see the changes the next day.

Katelynn

Kindergarten is a big hit for Katelynn. She loves pretty much everything about it. I have to ask a lot of questions to find out what all is going on each day at school for her, but she is making friends and enjoying herself a lot. The friends I have been hearing about the most so far are Zachary and Mindy.. and sometimes Maggie. I honestly don't know any of the parents or kids at her school at this point but hopefully I will get to know more as the months go on. So far she is doing a lot of review work more than learning (and has been complaining about that.. the other day it was, "I had to write my numbers AGAIN and I already know my numbers, mom!"), but today she brought home a drawing of her family, and I was impressed to see how much her artwork is improving already this year. She used to make stick hands on people (even just last week) and now she is drawing hands and shoulders! Currently this piece of artwork is my favorite!!

While I am enjoying our new school schedule, even moreso that I thought I would and really love hearing about the kid's days (seriously one of my favorite parts of the day), I can't say that I'm sad the weekend is here. It will be nice to spend the next two days together as a family of five!