first week back

Everyone's first week of back-to-school schedule went pretty great. The older kids were a little sleepy and had to receive the mommy alarm because they slept through their own alarms, but they had a good week at school.

The first day at Seth's new school started out to be chaotic. His old school had a perfect system of drop off and pick up that completely prevented traffic jams and chaos. Not true of his new school. There was a mess in the office with all the people who were late to school on the first day. I didn't get to work until about 10:30 a.m. even though school started at 9 a.m. !!!! All the way until I left Seth in his new classroom, he was yelling at everyone, "NO SCHOOL!!!!" He gave me the most pitiful look when I told him good-bye, "MOM, you're NOT leaving me here with all these strangers, ARE YOU???!!!!!" He ended up having a really good week, though.
His favorite part, I'm pretty sure, is riding the school bus. He rides the special needs bus on the way to school, but he rides the regular bus with all the other neighborhood kids on the way home. One of his friends from his kindergarten class last year is on the same bus. I was glad to see that there's a familiar face amidst the many strangers! There are also some kids from church that go to his new school :-) It's SO nice to not have to be in the middle of the mess of a parking lot at this new school! I should've taken the camera outside to capture Seth coming off the bus for the first time!! But I was too excited to go get him, so I forgot. He was so smiley and excited about getting to ride the bus.

Since the morning bus picks Seth up at Jason's work, I get to go to work an hour earlier. So this whole new deal is good for everyone -- Seth gets to go to "school" with Jason, Joel, Makenzie, and Luke; he gets to ride the BUS; he has more specialized attention from trained special education teachers since there are at least five adults and only seven students; Jason and I don't have to take him to or pick him up from school; and I get more time to work, run errands, and get a few things done at home. What a good start to the new year :-)