I need one more week.

Okay, maybe just a few days.  Something.  I'm just not ready for today.  We just got home from China on Thursday night, and all my big kids started school today.  I knew it was coming, of course, but I'm still not ready for it.  Emotionally or otherwise.  All three limped away with sub-standard loads of school supplies.  We'll get the rest tonight after I know exactly what Caroline and Ellis really need.  They are, after all, starting high school and middle school, respectively, and they won't really know what they need for each class until after today. 

HIGH SCHOOL AND MIDDLE SCHOOL.  Did I mention I'm not ready for this?

So this morning included moments that were weird, sad, funny, stressful, proud, rushed, surreal . . . you name it.  It started when I slipped out of bed carefully so I wouldn't wake the sleeping Chinese kid next to me. 
There was a sleeping Chinese kid next to me!!  WHAT??  As I write this I'm reminded of a post I wrote long ago where I imagined this very thing.  Kinda sweet how that has come full circle and I'm experiencing the real thing.  :-)  Of course, sometime this week we might start trying to transition Jin to his own room.  Pray, saints.  To quote one of my favorite modern English poets, Dylan Thomas, he will "not go gently into that good night."

Anyway, I quietly woke Caroline up at 6:00 to get ready for school.  I didn't want to wake Gillian, because her school day doesn't start until two hours later than Caroline's.  This is just part of what is going to make school mornings a little nutty the next two years, I think.  So Caroline got ready for school, her first day of her freshman year of high school, and I was so proud of my beautiful firstborn as she and Tony pulled out of the driveway.  My sweet Caroline, who has already fearlessly signed up to be in some skit during homecoming week, and who helped her sister pick out an outfit for today, and who was an unbelievable source of help and leadership and bigsisterness on our trip to China.  I love that girl.

Just before it was time for Caroline to leave for school, about 7:00ish, I had barely managed to form the thought I need to wake Ellis up next when the boy appeared before my eyes, fully dressed and completely perky and happy.  How could I have forgotten that he's my schedule-driven child who laid out his clothes last night in the shape of a body on the floor of his room (the first time he did that last year it scared me to death, because I thought it was an actual body) and set his own alarm clock and woke to it within an instant of hearing it and dressed in the dark and emerged from his room as though he'd been up for an hour?  That's Ellis.  He was literally standing in the kitchen with his backpack on, having eaten his breakfast and brushed his teeth, before Caroline and Tony even left.  I'm thankful for a self-assured kid who is more excited than nervous about starting the dreaded middle school years.  So he had plenty of time to play with his little brother, who woke up a few moments later asking for his ge-ge (which means "big brother" and is pronounced guh-guh), which he does pretty much every morning.  So sweet.  And then it was Ellis' turn to head to school, and my handsome almost-twelve-year-old rode off with Tony, this time in the van so Jin could go along for the ride.





And sweet little Gillie Bean was next.  She woke up not long after Ellis did, and I realized it's not all bad that our bodies are still adjusting to the time changes we've experienced.  She was wiped out by 9:00 last night, so she got a really good night's sleep, which she, more than any of the others, really needs.  She ate a couple of cinnamon rolls and dressed in her cute outfit she had chosen last night, complete with brand new shoes she got yesterday.  She gathered the few supplies I had managed to find in all the school stuff I brought home when I cleaned out my classroom in June.  Thankfully, she wasn't bothered by the fact that she wouldn't have absolutely EVERYTHING on the list today.  She packed her own lunch and fixed her hair and watched a video with Jin, and it was my turn to do taxi service.  She paused long enough on our way out the door to let me snap a picture of her, too.  My beautiful baby girl is a fourth grader.  *sigh*

Ya know, when you're a teacher, you have to arrive an hour before school starts, and on the very first day I've always liked to arrive even earlier.  So I was vaguely aware of the madness that is the car line on the first day of school, but since it's been years since I've had to actually participate in it, I had completely forgotten.  So I was unprepared to encounter the car line backed all the way up to the entrance to my own little neighborhood, which is just less than a mile away from our school.  That's a long car line, honeys.  I found myself weighing the pros and cons of letting Gillian bike to school.  It won't be this way after a few days, I know, but still.  Crazy. 

When we finally made it onto the school property (about ten or fifteen minutes later), I parked on the grass and walked Gillian in.  We stopped along the way to give lots of hugs and answer questions about Jin from my sweet co-workers, promising them I'll bring him to meet everyone soon.  These were some of the weird moments of the morning.  It was so strange to be bringing my child to school and not greeting other people's children in my classroom.  I miss the excitement of being a teacher on the first day of school, and the whole time I was there this morning it seemed as though I was forgetting something I was supposed to be doing or that I wasn't where I was supposed to be.  But I know I was exactly where I am supposed to be, and it felt good to hold Gillian's hand and walk her to her class like all those other parents.  Kinda the best of both worlds, really.  Still an Oakstead Otter, just playing a different role this year.  :-)

When I finally got home, it occurred to me that Caroline was probably already in her third period class, and Ellis had already faced, for the first time ever, the challenge of changing classes in a busy hallway with kids he doesn't know and teachers he's never met.  Lord, be with them today.  And when I walked in the front door, I was greeted with the sweetest sound . . . "Mommy!"  Tiny voice from a tiny body, sitting on Daddy's lap in front of the computer, eating Cheerios in his new pajamas, no doubt wondering where in the heck his sisters and brother went.  This is his "something'sgoingonthatyou'renottellingme" look:

And now, as I wrap this up, Jin is zonked out on the couch, Tony is getting some things done on the computer, and Caroline gets OUT of school in two hours.  Gee, what will I do with all this time?  Well, there are still quite a few things that I've unpacked and need to put away, and there's laundry, and my kitchen is a wreck, and I really want to post about our trip, and I've got a long way to go before Jin's room is really done, and I actually still have some thank-you notes to write (some things never change), and there are random things laying all around my house.

So begins this new phase of our lives.  Nothing like jumping right in, huh?