Mrs. Hot Mess

With pregnancy and a new baby comes some seriously crazy emotions. I knew that. Make it a special needs pregnancy and you are talking about recipe for disaster. But hold on, try this: you move a week before you deliver, your 5 year old graduates from preschool 5 days after delivery back at his old school, he starts summer camp in a new town with new kids the following week, you are at different specialty doctor's every week with the baby, maternity leave ends so you have to leave the baby to go back to work and then your 5 year old starts kindergarten at a new school, with new kids. Again. All of that within one summer. Yeah, I'm a hot mess.

Deuce had been at Kids R Kids for two and a half years. He loved it there. The staff was great and he made some really great friends. The day that Kendall was born was his graduation picnic. I had been looking forward to it because we had moved the week before so I knew Deuce would be excited to see his friends back in Greensboro. He had been staying with my mom in the interim. Well Kendall decided to show up 3 weeks early so Nana had to take Deuce to Greensboro. She sent me this picture to make sure I knew he was having a blast. Hot Mess.

We went home from the hospital on Saturday night and preschool graduation was Tuesday. I didn't have enough forethought to worry about what I was going to wear so at the last minute I was trying to go through my closet that was still full of unpacked garbage bags to find something. I'm not supposed to have to think about dressing nice 5 days after giving birth dammit! But whatever. I scraped it together. Hot Mess.

I cried when they played pomp and circumstance for the kids to walk out on the stage. Ed looked at me like I was crazy. I totally blame it on the hormones. I spent the entire ceremony furiously fanning myself with the program until I basically creased it all to hell. Hot Mess.

We went out to dinner afterwards to celebrate. Me, Ed, all 3 boys, Grandma, Nana & Papa and Wawa. My car wouldn't start in the parking lot afterwards. We're in Greensboro. Where I don't live anymore. Luckily Laura had some jumper cables and Papa drove it back while me and the littles rode back with Nana. Hot Mess.

That first week home from the hospital was rough. No camp or school for Deuce, Ed was working from home (remember we are in a tiny apartment temporarily), a new baby and an exhausted mommy. We couldn't really take Deuce to do much and he was going crazy. By the first day of summer camp, which was just 6 days later, I couldn't wait to get them him out of the house. Hot Mess.

Deuce spent the summer at the YMCA where he went on 2 field trips per week, had swim lessons and free swim every day and spent many hours on the playground. It was a great camp, the staff was great and super organized. It really worked out well for us. He is also in after school there so he was very comfortable riding the bus there the first day.

Then before I knew it, the baby was 10 weeks old, it was time for me to go back to work and Deuce had to start school. I tried to get the doctor to push out my leave by 2 weeks so I could get through Deuce starting school before I went back but he wouldn't approve it. Ugh. Told me it would be good for me to get back to a routine, including work. Thanks dude, because you've birthed babies and started kindergarten plenty of times. (Yes, I just referred to myself as starting kindergarten because I kind of am).

The first day of school came and Deuce held both me and Ed's hands as we walked him up the sidewalk to the cafeteria. I was hanging in there until we walked up and I saw Val at the door wiping a tear. She was holding it in good though. Harrison was totally not feeling school that day. Deuce gripped my hand a little tighter. We went in and saw Aja who was beaming ready to start kindergarten. She had her two fingers on her lips and the others in the air, just like a little teacher lining the kids up, silently telling them to shut up. I tried to push Deuce over with her but he wouldn't let me go. Then the tears started. For him first. He was trying to blink them back and kept asking why he wasn't with Harrison AND Aja. Then Hot Mess over here tried to talk to him about how they all have recess together and lunch at the same time so he will be able to play with Harrison all the time. Trying to convince your scared kid to go out on his own when you are crying too isn't such a bright plan. And an unattractive one at that. But I did it, I walked away and left him there. Left him to start this new journey. And he loved it.

So yeah, I'm a hot mess. Have been all summer. But I will always try to hold it together because I'm Mary freaking Poppins and that's what I do.

Christmas Program

Deuce had his first ever Christmas Program at school this year. He was so excited and practiced both of his songs very hard. I could have cried watching this.

Yes, I was "that" mom.

The annoying one that you look at like, "Seriously he just sang two Christmas songs lady. It's not that big of a deal." But I was overwhelmed with how big of a deal it actually was. For him...

Which made it a big deal for me.

Right after it was over, he came to the front of the stage and gave me a hug and a kiss in front of everyone.

I loved every second of it.

Hello 2013.

After a 2+ month hiatus from blogging, I am back. I had almost a month off from work for the holidays and it was hard for me to even crack open a computer while away from work. I'm not sure that I even opened my computer at home more than twice. Being able to check email, facebook, instagram, etc... all from the phone really eliminates the need to get on the computer while away from work. At least for me anyway. So while I'm sure I'll be kicking myself down the road for not staying on top of things during the 2012 holidays, it was nice to give it a break. I'm going to try and post some of the stuff we did over the break so bear with me as I go backwards and all out of order.

2013 has started out with a lot of changes for our family. I found out in October that my department at work was preparing to undergo a pretty substantial reorganization, effective January 7th. This reorganization was key for me as it opened up a full time position. Just to take you back, I went part time in August of 2011 because I was a temporary employee and the PT job opening was the only thing available. If I wanted to get in permanent with the company I had to settle for PT. While part time salary is not ideal, I was able to finagle our budget and compress my work hours into 3 days. So for almost a year and a half I only worked Monday-Wednesday and had 4 days weekends. Pretty awesome. It also allowed me to have an invaluable amount of time with Deuce before he goes off to school for the next 20 years. My goal has always been to work full time but I was willing to sacrifice with hopes of being full time eventually. My employer has known that I wanted to be full time all along so that was immediately worked into the reorganization. Along with full time I also received a salary grade bump which made going full time all that more exciting. So yes, I am back to working 5 days a week (I was able to secure working from home on Fridays though) and things with my job couldn't get much better right now. Having gone through a heartbreaking layoff, I am more than appreciative of the opportunity I have been given.

So with full time work, comes full time preschool. Deuce started preschool last Monday for the first time ever. And he is loving every second of it. I will do a separate post on school but he really enjoys it. While these changes seem to affect only me and Deuce, the parental responsibilities have totally shifted as well. 

The school has webcams!

Because Deuce is in preschool in Greensboro, Ed is now the taxi service instead of me. The school is about a mile from Ed's job so Ed drops him off in the mornings and picks him up as well. This has helped my commute from Greensboro to RTP tremendously. I am able to change my route to work since I no longer have to go into Chapel Hill to drop Deuce off and pick him up. I would say it has cut off around 30 minutes of my commute each way. It's wonderful. That's an hour less per day of being in the car. I make sure to help get Deuce ready in the mornings and put him to bed at night so we still have our one on one time but Ed is doing a great job adjusting to his new responsibilities. Not that I ever doubted him or anything. It's just that Deuce was always with me and now he's always with Ed. It was bound to happen with a boy anyway.

During December we made a trip to the mountains, made a trip to Virginia, had an awesome Christmas Eve party and spent a lot of time at the gym playing basketball. I've got posts and pictures for all of it. They'll be coming soon! It feels good to be back.