The Big Hooray

Yay for the weekend!!! Yay for Saturday morning pancakes, yay for no rushing out the door, yay for playing all day. But you want to know what else gets a big "Yay"? The other two boys started school this week. It's like the angels sang at 9 am on Thursday morning at drop off. While a few other moms anxiously dropped off their crying children and waited with baited breath outside classroom doors, this mama dashed out the door as fast as possible. In fact, Tucker was crying when I put him down, but I sort of nudged him in the door with my foot, yelled "He'll be fine in a minute" to his teacher, and ran while grinning from ear to ear like a crazed maniac. Three hours of bliss followed. An hour and 45 minutes was spent at the gym because I didn't have to worry about childcare. Then, I came home and showered, folded clothes, ate lunch in peace, made the kids lunches, and washed a load of clothes. Did I mention bliss???

The boys were really tired, and Tucker hasn't eaten lunch either yesterday or today because he's been exhausted. Okie dokie - nap it is... After Jake started school it's been rough. Connor and Jake are the best of buds (and at times, the worst of enemies), so when Connor's playmate wasn't here he expected to play with me but not Tucker. Well, that's just dumb. I mean nap time for Tucker was all about hanging out, but the rest of the day for the safety of the 21 month old someone actually has to watch him. Thank goodness for preschool, people.

Today, Jason had a free morning. I did the gym before the kids got up, came home, showered, and got everyone out the door. After dropping all the kids off we had a date morning. There was a brunch that included mimosas and a yummy coffee drink (that totally negated the previous workout), and we played tourists on Broughton St for a while. We pulled up to pick up the boys about 10 minutes early because our parking meter expired, and we didn't have time to run home and back. Their school doesn't have a carpool line, so you have to run in and get them. Mind you, school opens at 9, and they do not open those doors until the last second. Well, those eager parents were standing there knocking on the door right after we pulled up. And guess what - at pick up time that door magically opened :) Did we get out? Nope. We sat there with the preschool director looking and waited for the correct pickup time before retrieving reality. Do I feel guilty? Not even in the slightest. We earned that three hours with all the whining, shuttling, fight breaking up, etc we have done this summer. Savor those extra few minutes with our children, teachers.

I will say this. The last two days of littles in school has made me a better mama. I played chase with T all afternoon while the big two soaked up playing together, I held C's hand while he drifted off for a nap today, couldn't help but smile (and Instagram) T kissing the dog, and well, I can't wait to see J at the end of every school day because let's be honest. Three hours is great to get away, but seven hours still makes this mama's heart break a tiny bit. And that's the truth.

And can I just say that I do believe there is a little resemblance here, ya think?