First Day of School

It's a new school year & this momma is excited! It was an extra long summer being home with 4 kids but we all survived each other. I loved getting to spend time to bond with Noah and we had fun doing all our summer activities but I am so ready to send them off for 7 hours a day & enjoy some things I like. This year all 4 will be in school most of the time. Madison is a 9th grader & in her first year of high school! I can't believe it. She is taking a full load with 4 AP classes, sign language, art, & dancing on the drill team. It's going to be a busy year for her but I think she's going to enjoy it. Gage is in 3rd grade. I am nervous about this year & praying he can stay focused so we don't have to look into starting him on ADHD medication. He is an A/B student so as long as he can keep that up, we will wait on medication. He has a sweet teacher this year & I hope they work well together. Noah is at a different school than Gage & Autumn. He is in the FA2 program which is not offered at the school the other 2 attend. FA stands for Functional Academics which is a class for kids with special needs that need a little extra help with school. He started kindergarten this year. He will also do inclusion with the regular kinder kids. He will go to lunch & specials (PE,music,art) with them as well as spend a set amount of time in their classroom. His classroom only has 5 students so he will get a lot of extra help learning & hopefully one day he will no longer be behind or need to be in the FA programs. He will also receive speech therapy again this year at school. He did not do well on the first day but day 2 & 3 went great. He does much better when he rides the bus to school & mommy does not take him so we will stick to that plan. Autumn is in her 3rd year of the PPCD program but her 2nd year of pre-k. She also does inclusion with the regular pre-k kids for an hour a day & then the rest of the day she is in her PPCD classroom learning. She will continue to have OT,PT, & speech therapy at school as well. We are also doing OT & feeding therapy outside of school. Autumn will go 4 days a week for 5 hours a day this year & Mondays we do private therapy. So, we have lots of busy kids to keep up with this year. The nice thing is they all leave & arrive home at different times. Noah gets on the bus at 7am, I drive Gage to school at 7:30am, take Madison to school at 8:15am & then Autumn gets on the bus at 8:40am. Autumn is the first home at 2:10pm, Noah gets home at 3:15pm, Gage arrives about 5 mins later, & then I leave to pick up Madison at 3:30pm. It works out really well. James also started his new day shift schedule this week. YAY!!! I am super excited about him working days, even though he is not. He will be off Mon-Wed & then work Th-Su from 6:30am-4:30pm. It stinks he will still work weekends but now we will get to see each other more during the week & without kids requesting our attention every 2 minutes. James is not thrilled to be working days in the Texas heat but he can just get over it. For 10 years, he has worked evening/night shifts so I think it's about time we get it MY way for 6 months. I'm excited that on weekends I don't have to constantly yell at kids for playing too loudly. I get to fall asleep next to my husband & actually talk with him during the day. I can clean our room & bathroom whenever I want & not have to wait until the evenings. There is just so many things I am looking forward to. Like holidays, we don't have to rearrange everything to work around his sleeping schedule. It's going to be awesome, I just know it & James will eventually see it too ;) This week has been an adjustment with him trying to switch his body from sleeping days instead of nights so he has been extremely tired & not sleeping much. Today was his first day to actually work & he was suppose to wake up at 5:30am but woke up at 2am instead so it's going to be a long day for him. I am also trying to get use to having him in bed with me so it's been hard for me to fall asleep to his snoring. It's kind of like we are newlyweds again learning each other's sleeping habits. Now that he will be working days, I am on Autumn duty 2 nights a week. We only have enough nursing hours to cover Autumn's school times & then 5 nights a week so I'm left to do the other nights (James would help but he sleeps too heavy to hear her machines go off like I can). I am adjusting to waking up several times a night to check a beep or empty her water trap on her vent circuit (has to be emptied every 4 hours). It's okay though since we get to have James on a daytime schedule with the family. I think this is going to be another fun & extremely busy school year for us! Here are some first day of school pictures. The last one is just a cute one of Autumn & Noah "playing together".