Tuesday, September 6, 2011

And So It Begins


This is the giant new schedule board I created for Nathan over the weekend.  I'm pretty sure if there were an award for the Occasionally Better Than Average Mother, this would be the project I'd enter into the competition. 




Of course, I'd lose some points in the competition for all the TV icons I have on there.  And I'm sure the winner's board would be laminated, and all the pieces would be stuck on straight.

But it's not about the aesthetics of the board, of course.  It's about what the board represents.  We're on a schedule, people!  Fall is here and order has been restored!

It is time to turn a metaphorical page in our lives.  As if right on cue, the weather made a perfect transition to autumnal, with temps in the low 60s and beautiful clear skies.  It's time for jeans and closed-toed shoes again:


And because I believe in clean breaks and obvious transitions, I got myself a new fall purse.  The old purse in the summery shade of lavender wouldn't do.  It was time for a navy blue messenger bag:


I moved into my new purse right before it was time to take Nathan to his first day of Four-Year-Old Preschool.  Naturally, Nathan wanted me to know that he hated school and needed a break from school.  Okay, (a) What the hell did he think the summer was?, and (b) Your school is a three-hour session of snacks, coloring, and Legos.  How hard could it be?

But obviously he was just masking his trepidation about his new environment.  Like a lot of men, he channeled his fear into anger.

He was a little bit nervous and clingy when we got to school:



It took a bit of prodding to get him to snap out of his stupor and hang up his backpack:


The classic mixed-feelings face.  He gets that from me:


But I don't have mixed feelings right now.  I'm filled with pure excitement and optimism as I look forward to the new season.  It's always nice to start again.

Oh, and, as I predicted, Nathan had a great time and got a good report from school.  Which was a totally welcome change from last year's first-day report, which was that he refused to sit down and do his work.

Today, however, he came home with three pieces of classwork: an apple dot-to-dot that went from 1 to 15, a school bus he colored, and a construction paper schoolhouse that demonstrated those stellar scissor skills we worked on over the summer. 

Bring it on, fall.  We are ready.

5 comments:

Diana said...

I know being his grandma I have a different reaction to Nathan but I think he has a career as an actor with the faces he comes up with. Without speaking a word he communicates so much!
Thank goodness for the fall weather.

Kimberly said...

Nice chart! Yay for preschool being back in session too :) Same here

Mtake said...

Is that another Dad's project type of chart? The apple falls.... well you know the rest.

Nice bit of news from lovely purses to good first-day-at-school reports.

Melisa Wells said...

That is probably the most fantastic chart I have ever seen.

And thanks for reminding me that it's time to stop using my pretty, tropical-print summer (San Diego: wah!) purse and trade it in for something darker and more autumnal...

AlishaW said...

Love the hoodie!