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A New School

I've never been a mom who gets teary-eyed when dropping a child off at school or daycare.  I always figure that navigating through new situations, no matter how difficult, can only help my children prepare for future scenarios.  Plus, we've got a lot of other stuff going on, so there's not much time to sit around and think about how much I miss them.

However, this week was very, very different.  I dropped G off at daycare on Tuesday, like normal, and then Ava and I headed up to her new elementary school.  I wasn't 100% sure which door to go in, where to take her backpack, and how to sign her in.  We were both a bit lost, but when you follow a) signs and b) a herd of parents with kids, it's not too hard to figure out!  A very kind employee showed me how to use the online check-in system, and warmly welcomed Ava to the before-school program.  They were just about ready to sit down for a meeting (do the kids have "meetings" in elementary school now?  seems so...work-like) so Ava just needed to take a seat and listen up.  I nudged her along to the mass of kids sitting on the floor, and she hesitated.  And that hesitation just about put me over the edge.  Here is our outgoing, super-social girl, for whom shyness is never a factor.  Tuesday was the first day I ever saw her stop, unsure of herself.  I had turned back to watch her, and couldn't really run back into the room.  All I could do was watch her stand there, not sure what to do.

So, I made myself walk out that door, wipe away some tears, and drive into work.  I knew she would be fine once she got into the group of kids, but yikes, that was more emotion than I was expecting to have.  The good news is that later that morning, one of my neighbors let me know that she was looked for Ava in the before school program, since she was dropping her son off for his first day of Kindergarten.  Apparently Fletch and Ava's little faces lit up when they saw each other.  Yay!

All in all she had a GREAT first day of school!  She loves her teacher, has already made new friends in her class, and she even brought home a phone number of one of her new friends so we can set up a play date. Now, I just need to make that phone call so they can have some fun together!

She wants to be a BAKER when she grows up...now that's one that I do believe!



G had another fun first...he's been pulling himself to a standing position on the furniture, and walking a few steps while holding on to it.  The other day he managed to stand on his own for a few seconds and then fell over.  We're thinking his first independent steps are just right around the corner!!  His bottom two teeth are definitely through, and Scott thought he felt his top teeth poking through as well.  They do pop in and out, so I didn't see them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they come out soon.

Scott was a single parent for a few days this week, as I had a work trip to Boston.  It was not a flawless travel adventure, by any means.  I didn't get to my hotel in Boston until after midnight on Tuesday night, and then met up with everyone for breakfast the next day.  I think I got about 3 hours of sleep that night.  The meeting with our clients went relatively well, but after that, it was a downward spiral of mishaps!

One of our VPs was whisked away to the airport in a lovely Town Car (she had an earlier flight) so the three of us that were left were set up with a different transfer.  So different, in fact, that it wasn't even a taxi.  It was a "delivery" service.  And not a nice one.  After some confusion, we realized that the guy sitting out in the lot in his personal '90-something Buick was our ride.  Turns out that HE was a nice guy, which was a relief.

So then we hit really bad Boston rush hour traffic.  Bad like, "are we going to make our flight??" bad.  We got to the airport, flew through security, only to realize our flight was delayed.  A lot.  We spent many, many minutes calling American, tracking down crew members, a pilot, and a gate agent, who finally confirmed that yes, we were going to miss our connecting flight in Chicago.  So, AA re-booked us for a 7:50am flight from Chicago to MSP, and we headed off to find a place for dinner.  We enjoyed our dinner, had lots of laughs about our "adventure" so far, and were beyond grateful that we were stuck in this together.

Things looked up for a bit at that point...the gate agent who had eventually helped us, also re-booked us on the Chicago-Boston leg so we were sitting next to each other, in bulkhead.  Extra leg room - woohoo!  Plus, the flight attendant from 1st class took pity upon us (I think we were entertaining to him) and brought us all the 1st class goodies...blankets, headphones, warmed mixed nuts, warm cookies, wine, etc.  It was awesome.  He was our "flight angel" - and we let him know!  There was only one questionable moment on that flight...right as we were going to start taxi-ing to the runway, a man jumped up, ran down the aisle and tried to get off the plane.  Ummmm...  He had left his iPad in the gate, and after a 30 min delay, the captain finally let him leave the plane, for good.  We were all a bit nervous though...

We landed in Chicago after midnight, got to the hotel after 1am, and were back up as a group before 6am (2 hours of sleep that night - wow!)  Our regional jet to MSP was packed, so I was lucky enough not to have to check bags, but my co-workers did (annoying, when all you want to do is be able to walk off the plane.)  We also hit really bad turbulence - to the point where the flight attendants were pointing out where the bags were located in the seat pocket in front of us.

And then we made it back.  And I went to work.  And I was exhausted...wearing clothes from the Boston airport, a bit delirious, and worked a full day.  On Friday my director asked me to try to leave early, so I got out of there at 4pm.  I do appreciate that, but man, this week was a really screwy one.  Glad it's over!

Looking forward to a fresh start this week!

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