Their vacation ends, and mine begins!

These two kiddos headed off to school last week. Mary is glad to have Mommy all to herself during the days.

Aiden is enjoying fourth grade so far. His school had an infomercial, uh, I mean assembly, with a yo-yo guy. Now they are selling his yo-yos and DVD's at the school. So Aiden cashed in all his allowance to get one and has been trying to figure it out.

Emma is a big first grader. We decided to send her to a transitional first grade class this year. She is in a special needs class, but it's within a regular school. They interact with all the other first graders at recess and lunch and everything else just as if they were any other first grade class. Next year, she should be ready to go to second grade at school with Aiden.

She really seems to like her class and feels pretty big and grown up to be going to a regular school. I walked her to class the first week to help her get in the big main doors of the school and to navigate the crowded halls with her walker. But this week, she said "Mom, can you quit following me?" so I hung behind a little but still kept following to watch her from a short distance. Ms. Independent wasn't having any of that. She kept turning around saying "Mom! Stop following me!" So now, I help her across the traffic lane of parents dropping their kids off, and Mary and I stand at the curb to watch her walk down the side walk and push the big silver button to open the doors all by herself. What can I say? It's hard to let go. :)

anyway, back to the grind. Settling in to the new normal. all is well.