On September 1, 2021 the kids started back at school, in person. They are very happy to be back among friends and being in a physical school. This also makes me happy as I don’t have to fight with them every day to do their schoolwork and focus on what needs to be done related to school. Still fighting with them to do what needs to be done to make the housework, but that’s part of being a parent I guess.
Day one for Seth had him coming home with a mask covered in slime. Day 4 had him coming home with a goose egg on his forehead. Yep, he is that kid and will always be that kid. The slime came from a stress ball that he was allowed to take to school that he squeezed to tightly and it burst all over his desk, shoes and mask. (The kids can take off their masks when seated at their individual desks, which he was at the time.) To me it was very funny and completely expected that he would be the one to make that type of mess.
The goose egg came from him butting heads with another kid in gym class. Neither were watching where they were running and crashed into each other with Seth obtaining the worst of the damage as I think he was running faster and likely had his head down a bit more. He’s fine, but has a nice bruise on his forehead above his eye. The other kid apparently has a line on his forehead from Seth’s glasses, which flew off his face and across the gym – they are fine.
Seth has started to make new friends, one of which he has found to live close enough that with permission he can go to her house. He has gotten in trouble for not asking as she is still within our area, just farther away than I want him to be as he hasn’t quite shown the responsibility to come home and check in when he needs to. I do have a parent number for his new friend, but there is still that responsibility piece that he needs to show me.
He still has his that do, and they have been trying to walk home from school together. This is hard as there is about a 30 minute gap between when the Catholic School lets out and the public school. It’s cute.
Dax’s first day was full of nerves. He was a bit shy which was really weird as he normally isn’t that way. It appeared that he was intimidated as he wasn’t the biggest kid in the class anymore. There were some kids that were quiet a bit broader than he was and some taller. New school, new people, new things.
Within the first few days of school Dax had an optometry appointment and we finally got him new glasses that I don’t have to tape the arm on like his old ones. At first he was concerned because he said the edges were blurry and things looked blurry when he moved his head too fast. I will have to remember to ask him if he is still having those issues. He is getting expensive though as he is right between kids and adults in sizes for glasses. Which means the frames are more, but the lenses cost the same.
His feet are also costing me more money as his shoes are now bigger than mine and hard to find as he transitions between kids and men’s/women’s sizes in shoes. Kudos to the Asics Shoe company for having kids shoes that go up to a size 7 rather than punting kids into men’s shoes which fit way differently. Kids feet are usually still pretty narrow so men’s and a lot of women’s shoes don’t fit right yet.
Dax has also started to make friends. He has already made plans with kids in his class to meet to play on friday afternoons and during the week after school. He seems to be the leader in that part, which he often did at his previous school when he wanted to play/hang out with his friends. These friends are also not directly in our collection of blocks, but they all agree to meet and he was so excited when they all showed up as planned.
He has also collected a bunch of them online so is very happily settling into the new school. The ones online are from a bit further away and can’t come play in the same way as the ones closer. I knew he would settle in quickly. He was super excited when there was a proper computer lab that the kids would get to use and the library (Learning Commons) was open, bigger and had more selection than the other school.
Something that Dax has continued from when we were doing school from home is showing me his work. Especially the poetry that they are working on this year. He still likes to tell me about his day and I have to stop him to ensure that Seth can get his stories in too. We are settling into getting to school, and home, and I am starting to get back to work. It’s an adjustment and will be for the rest of fall as I get used to putting on my work mask, work costume and commuting to the place I am required to be. That I think will be the hardest part of this whole transition to normal. I am not used to being in my “work” character for long periods of time as it wasn’t required when I worked from home. The “work” character only came out when I was online in meetings. This is something I need to unpack more and hopefully I can find the balance.
We are moving forward.
We are finding our strength.
We are supporting each other.
In the dark we are each others light.
The Adams-Schlag Family 