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.