Two weeks ago, Caleb started first grade at his new school here in Tennessee. Thanks to the fact that I had failed to sync my iPhone calendar with my computer calendar for months, I got mixed up and thought that his first day of school was Wednesday. Didn't realize until we were about half-a-mile from the school that I had the wrong day. After the initial, "I can't believe I did that!" I was super-thankful to have a chance to do-over the first day of school. I had overslept, failed to wake up Caleb early enough, served a rushed breakfast of cereal, discovered that one of Caleb's only pair of tennis shoes (a dress-code requirement) had been left in Alabama, and completely forgotten to take pictures. So, on the fake first day of school, we went to the mall to buy new tennis shoes and enjoyed a second last-day-of-summer :) The real first day of school went perfectly, complete with hot breakfast, new shoes, and lots of pictures.
Caleb loves his new school, and seems to have adjusted very well by all accounts. He loves going every day, and though it seems that he is gone from me for so long (7 hours!), he is enjoying himself thoroughly. He is full of reports of all the things he's learning, and his interest in reading and his fluency has taken another great leap forward. I sometimes find him in his room, just reading to himself. The first Sunday after school started, he and I had this conversation:
Me: Caleb, you need to go take a shower. You have school tomorrow and I let you skip it yesterday, but you have to take one today.
Caleb: You let me skip school!? (face crumpling into tears) I didn't want to skip a day of school! I didn't know there was school yesterday!!!
I quickly explained that it was the shower I'd let him skip, not school, but I was surprised at how upset he was!
Ethan started school at his preschool earlier this week. His first three days have been successful, and he is excited to go each morning. Caleb has the temperament to enjoy school, but Ethan does not as much, so I'm hoping and praying that this preschool will hold his interest in the weeks and months to come. It is not a typical preschool, and I think it has the best chance of any preschool I've seen of keeping Ethan's voracious mind stimulated and his busy hands doing productive work.
We've been in Tennessee for two months now, and I still feel very new to everything. I've found a pediatrician, a Publix, a couple of parks, the library, and, oh yeah, the Children's ER (story coming soon), but I still don't feel at home yet. I miss Birmingham even more than I realized I would. It will be easier when we find the right church home. Even visiting churches has not been easy, since we started our time here with Marcus studying for boards 24/7 for two weeks, and his work schedule continued to be strenuous for the month after boards. Things are settling down now for him at work, and hopefully soon we will have a church home. I absolutely love the house we are renting here. It is in a beautiful neighborhood and is more space than we need, but not more than we can enjoy! We've been out of boxes for about a month now, and, even if Chattanooga doesn't feel like home yet, our house does and I couldn't be happier with it.
I'm trying to get back in the habit of blogging weekly, but life is crazy, so don't hold me to it :) God bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment