The kids went back to school this week, which mean my photos are going to be Linc-heavy for next…forever.

Sunday:

SO READY

Grocery store assistant

High chair? Why would I need a high chair?

Monday:

Where am I?! What year is this???

Preparing for her show

I bleach shampooed my hair. I’ll do a real post about it but the short review is A++

Tuesday:

Babies are hilarious

Evan agrees. Babies, man.

How we got through Back to School night

Wednesday:

First day of school! BUH-BYE!

A rainbow wrap and a pink truck. MY KID IS DOOOOOOMED.

The Book Barn is my new favorite

Thursday:

Aquarium playdate

IT’S SO QUIET

Starting her young

Friday:

Waving bye-bye to the bus is super fun

Living the toddler dream

Fair Life

Saturday:

I’m not sure we brought enough watermelon

He’s going to miss eating sand SO MUCH

Blankets are pretty much his favorite thing in the whole world

I am SO happy to have the kids back at school, even though school brings a whole new level of stress and deadlines and homework and one zillion pieces of paper that need my attention. They need the structure of school and the friends and the break from me (and my often short temper) right now. I figure by Christmas we’ll all be super excited to hang out together again. Right now I’m just going to enjoy the crap out of my one tiny baby who can’t talk back.

And if I say “Christmas” again before December, please punch me in the face.

Today was the first day of Kindergarten for Caroline and First Grade for Evan and all-day-Mommy-all-to-himself for Lincoln. Linc celebrated by getting up at 4:30 am and not taking a real nap ALL DAY. Luckily because he was the old kid I had to take care of I put my babywearing skillz to use and wore him all day. It means I blew my 10,000 step goal on FitBit out of the water PLUS my house is starting to look more like a place people would want to live and less like a nuclear bomb exploded. I have hopes that in a month I might get to the bottom of the Summer Crap Piles and start putting away the I’m Not Really Sure Where This Goes Things and then MAYBE I can add some Adorable Vintage Decorative Knicknacks That Look Good In Instagram Photos.

The morning bus came almost on time, which was great because I didn’t have to spend 45 minutes worrying I had somehow missed it or debating driving the kids to school myself. I was busy talking to the bus driver and forgot to a) take bus pictures and b) hug the kids goodbye but they cared exactly zero percent. Both report they had great days and Caroline’s report was backed up by a super short phone call from her teacher telling me she was great. Caroline also reports she has a new best friend named Bella. Evan reports “Mom I was good, NOW can I use the iPad?” Since I didn’t get a call to the contrary, I allowed it.

I’m really excited about this school year FOR them. Evan’s teacher is doing something called The Responsive Classroom, which sounds like exactly the kind of emotional and structured culture that he really responds to. As long as we can stay on top of his at-home reading he should have a great 1st grade year. Caroline cannot get enough of her letters and her desire to write is incredible, so I expect she will be very sad when she wakes up on Saturday and DOESN’T get to go to school.

These are from last night at Open House and this morning before school (all taken with my rented wide-angle lens which is super fun):

Today I said good bye to my kindergartener and my pre-because and welcomed home a first grader and a kindergartener. That means both big kids will be in full day programs at the same school next year. ONE bus in the morning, ONE bus in the afternoon, SEVEN hours of freedom in between. (Well, as free as you can be with a 1-year-old.)

The kids have grown so much this year, both physically and mentally. Caroline’s teachers report she is academically strong and predict she will thrive in kinder. They also said she has great maturity with peer pressure and when some of the girls in class get out of hand she’s great at saying “No, I shouldn’t do this” and removing herself from the situation. Since she’s always trying to keep up with Evan we’re working on her sight words and I suspect she’ll go into the fall already reading. She loves expressing “her style” with her glasses and hair and leggings but has no complaints about the school uniform (I LOVE school uniforms).

Evan looks like a completely different kid than in September. He’s so big and so capable and so smart. He reads at grade level, has mastered all the kinder math skills and got a glowing report on how very much he has progressed in both his listening and behavior since the winter. Even when he was having trouble listening to grown-ups, he remembered to be kind and help others. His school best friend is the smallest kid in the class, who he adopted as his personal responsibility to make sure no one was mean to him or picked on him. The last time the principal called, it was to tell me Evan stood up for a kid in the lunch line and a bigger kid pushed him. Evan told a teacher, but didn’t push back. Best phone call from the principal ever.

I am so excited to hang out with all the kids and do fun stuff and use all our memberships this summer. I’m letting them eat carrots, hummus and Oreos for dinner tonight while we start their very important Lord of the Rings education, so things are already in vacation mode.

First day of school post here for reference. (Sob sob sob so little now they’re so big sob etc etc.)

The peace sign apparently means “no excuses” at Evan’s school, so you do it when you need to prove you’re listening and ready to learn.

We have just a few more of everything to get through before summer. A few more days of school, a few more soccer practices, a few more end of the year things, a few more days where it’s not 85 degrees. I’m focusing on how busy we are so I don’t think too much about how Linc is going to turn one NEXT MONTH, although now that I’ve started planning his party (theme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) I am not quite so sad about it. Plus we’ve got this whole babywearing thing so I can keep pretending he is a baby as long as I can keep tying him on my back.

Sunday:

Hiding in the car because I do not enjoy soccer in the rain

Rocking her game in a tutu

Getting a swim in before the HUGE storm

Monday:

From the neck down I felt very fancy on Monday

Dreaming of escape at the vet

God bless the iPad during swim lessons

Tuesday:

Shopping list

We match our wraps to our outfits

That spatula is covered in very spicy chimichuri. He loved it.

Wednesday:

Unimpressed

She made up a story to read me. Obviously it included mermaids.

Family fun night

Thursday:

She said she’s going to be a seed scientist when she grows up

THAT IS NOT NAPPING

Soccer life

Friday:

Cake making helpers

This one is for sale but I am not really sure I want it to leave

Watching tires is not super exciting

Saturday:

Super Evan to save City Hall!

Lobsters are the best beach wrap

I always lose but I still love cribbage

I have some killer allergies right now that are making it impossible to sleep and stay asleep unless I am completely upright. It is not a very comfortable way to sleep. And because Linc still gets up a few times a night, losing ANY of my quality sleep is sucky. I have plans to maybe possibly sort of try to get him to sleep through the night over the summer – preferably before we go on vacation in August – but I might be too lazy to make that happen. Fingers crossed he just starts doing it on his own and I don’t have to make an effort.

The themes of this week are: Front Porch and Sleeping Baby. Those are sometimes related but not always. I’ve leveled up in babywearing this week too, with MULTIPLE back wrap naps.

Sunday:

Cream Cheese Face

The same cheese face, but with less cheese

I don’t know why he looks surprised, we were at Target

Monday:

Unimpressed at the grocery store

Helping me watch for the bus

My new favorite ridiculous pants

Tuesday:

I got your nose! No wait I don’t WHAT IS THIS THING IN THE WAY??

Still unimpressed, but awake

The dog he is very impressed with

Wednesday:

Christmas jams 4 EVER

This was an entirely unneccesary elevator ride

He did that to himself

Thursday:

Waiting room zombies

Linc was sleeping so we hung out in the car while Caroline had soccer. I felt like a bum but SLEEPING BABY.

Her cheeseburger’s so bright, she’s gotta wear shades

Friday:

Chatting with mom friends on the porch is boring for babies

He was showing her the school because she’ll go there next year too

The coolness of the sleeping baby is ruined by the arm in the sunglass reflection

Saturday:

Linc is not the step-and-repeat expert Caroline is yet.

This is not a very good picture but I love it so, so much. They’re closing the FAO Schwarz in New York and I’m so excited the kids got to visit.

New York wore him OUT

I have a severe case of the End Of Year Moms and almost no motivation to do anything besides take the kids fun places and drink iced coffees. I’m fighting hard to make it to June before I start letting the kids skip to go to the beach just because it’s too hot to sit on the couch with a baby on me. We have a lot of summer fun planned and I’m afraid we won’t have time for all the un-planned fun as well. This past weekend in NYC was a good start but we have a LOT more to do.