Back to School

Alek with a 'tude

The three oldest kids all started school this week, Charlie on Monday and Katie and Alek on Wednesday. I stayed home on Wednesday to help with transportation and to see Katie off to Kindergarten. It was one of the hottest days of the year and I let Alek leave the house in black jeans. It didn't occur to me it might be a problem until I dropped him off at school. Oops!

I also forgot to get a picture of Alek before school, so these are from right after I picked him up.

Katie was so excited to go to school, I thought she would burst. She was so mad when I took Alek in the morning and she didn't get to go. She's in the afternoon class.

Once we arrived at the school, she was ready to go immediately. All the other kids were hanging back, all timid and unsure. Katie ran away from us, shouting, "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" and went right into the classroom. This is her right inside the door.

They started outside, so I had to persuade her to come back out and join the class. She ran right to her teacher and started following her away from us. The other kids walked quietly, while Katie skipped and ran and made happy exclamations.

When I picked her up in the afternoon, she was supposed to sit quietly on the bench and wait for her teacher to call her name to be dismissed. Instead, she ran straight to me, yelling "Mommy!" She was the only child who didn't stay seated. I swear, it was like the rest of the kids were on Valium. I guess I am used to my hyper children and I just don't realize how calm other kids can be. Katie cried all the way home because she didn't want to leave school. I guess that means she likes it. So far, she has only made friends with the boys. I actually do find this a little surprising because she does have girl friends from church, but, of course, there are only girls in her class at church.

I wasn't home on Charlie's first day back to school, so I took pictures of him on Wednesday, too. He is thrilled to be back to his routine. He loves school. But he is also happy to come home. I do question what they are teaching him at school, since he appears to be throwing gang signs in this picture. (Ha ha, a little autism joke.)

Is this kid adorable or what?

Josh and I had some time to kill between dropping Katie off at school and picking up Alek an hour later (they had a minimum day on Wednesday, but kept the PM Kindergarten schedule the same as on regular days), so we took Fitz to the mall for a first for him:

Playing at the mall playground.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Fitz escaped from the play area and I had to run after him.

All in all, a good day.