Kids started school! All my kids are in school ALL day! Woohoo! Ryan is in a first/second grade split class. Half the kids in his class are in first grade and half are in second. They split up for literacy and for math and they do combined science/social studies. Ryan goes to the second grade literacy block, and sticks with first grade math. It works really well and he seems happy with his teacher (Ms. Ng) and his classmates. I really like that the school makes sure each kid gets the education they need. I don’t care what math or literacy block Ryan is apart of, I’m just glad that its just right for him!
Lillian is in kindergarten and she was so excited and nervous! What made it way easier on her and me was that she had Ryan’s teacher, Mrs. Salmon, from last year. Mrs. Salmon is the perfect kindergarten teacher. The kids love her and she is so loving to the kids. Lillian kept telling me she was excited to start school because she already had a friend, Mrs. Salmon! Shes also lucky that her best friend from preschool is also in her class! We really hit the jackpot!
The kids’ are getting a new school next year, that’s being built this year. They tore down their old school and are starting new. We are all pretty excited about that! This year they are going to a different elementary school that wasn’t in use. This school is about two miles away from us, therefore they qualify for riding the bus! I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, if I would just take them, or let them bus. The day before school started, after talking to a lot of moms, I decided they were going to bus. Ryan is does good with most situations, as long as he knows what to expect. He wasn’t nervous to start first grade (a little sad because he would miss Mrs. Salmon) but not nervous because school was school. When he found out he had to bus he had a little melt down saying he wouldn’t go! I texted a few friends and found out they were riding the bus, our bus, at the same bus stop. That helped him feel a little better about it. We also walked to where the bus stop was and talked about it. The first day of school he was ready for the bus and did great! (I let him ride the bus for the first day and I just drove to the school, met him there, and took some first day of school pictures.)
Another thing I like about this school is that they start kindergarten a few days after regular school starts, and the first day of kindergarten is half day. (They start a few days late so that the teachers can meet with the parents and new students so they can get to know them a little bit better. They do a half day on the first day so only half the kids are meeting the teacher and getting used to class, and rules. Half go in the morning, half go in the afternoon.) When Lillian was finally ready to start riding the bus, Ryan was an old pro. I could tell he wanted her to be more nervous so he could be the big brother to the rescue.
The kids both have recess at the same time and it took awhile for them to realize that they could play with their own friends and not each other. (Or play with each other and their friends.) Its fun to see how much they love and look out for each other! I love that both kids are happy and thriving! (Although now that school is in full swing Lillian told me she didn’t want Ryan to kiss her at school or at the bus. She thought people would think it was weird, and she was embarrassed. Hugs are OK though.)
On labor day we were able to go pick up a puppy! We got the sweetest little Havanese and was the sweetest little pup! The kids loved him and he was such a good little pup! We did a lot of research and picked the Havanese because they are great family dogs, they train well, they love their people, and they are hypoallergenic (as much as a dog can be.) We knew that Ryan had some allergies with dogs, and Chris and I are both allergy sensitive, so we made sure we got a dog that most compatible with that. Ryan decided on naming the dog Link and we all loved that name, so Link it was. The kids loved playing with Link, and Ryan was so good at training him. Shortly after we got the dog we noticed that our eyes were itchy, our throats were itchy, and typical allergy symptoms started to appear. We had him about a month before we realized it was just too much for us to have a dog in our home. (Hives, swollen eyes, etc.) We were all so broken hearted when we realized we would have to return him. Luckily the breeder we got him from was amazing to work with and we were able to return him right away for a full refund. We were happy to hear our sweet Linky boy was adopted by another family, and now is named Ripley. (We still like Link better.) We all think about him often and we hope he was doing well. We are happy that we have our freedom back, but we all miss that little guy and wonder what life would have been like with him!
