Tremendous

What a tremendous day.

These past three weeks have been dicey.  The start to fall most always is for me.  Lots of change, newness and uncertainty, couple that with the fact that my five year old is EXACTLY like me in the anxiety about new stuff department and you have a recipe for disaster.

But we've made it.  We're here on the other side of new and change and the view is amazing.
Ian and Ainsley are thick in their morning groove and it's going so well.  Louise is the easiest kid ever to drop off at school.  Felix has been napping all morning again.  I pay for it most afternoons but man are those 2.5 hours of complete silence in the morning glorious and worth every second of despair at 4:30pm.
Best of all?  I've figured out how to spend our after school hours.

For all the struggles of the first weeks of school those afternoons were the hardest.  I get mornings with kids, I was BORN for mornings with kids.  We're out we're about we're busy we're happy we're energetic we're fun.  We eat we nap...um then what?  In the summer we head outside to bike and walk and play, but with school Ainsley is too tired for too much romping around and I know now that to make it happily to bedtime we need a bit of downtime.

This past week we pick up Ainsley and come home to a waiting project.  Baking, crafting, something prepared and ready so all we have to do is get to it.  Today it as pumpkin muffins followed by a family video while they baked.  The girls are very into family videos these days and I happily oblige. Felix backs up onto my lap to snuggle while we watch the girls as babies and toddlers (SO fun to see them at Felix's current age, they're all so similar, yet so so different).

Then we play!  First it was a bit of left over sensory from lunchtime with Felix.  Bowl of hard black eyed peas, spoons and old coffee cans.  Then onto the pretend play.  My girls are the best players.  Today it was Heidi, packing up suitcases to run back to grandfather's (Felix's).  They ran away all the way to basement and back again.  Then I unveiled Ainsley's new quilt.  Her reaction was as good as I could imagine.  Then dinner, then baths for Felix and Louise while Ainsley READ TO ME.  She has a reading log for kindergarten and we decided for half of it to have her start reading in earnest to us.  Her favorite right now is Dick and Jane.  I think it's the best true FIRST reader.  It builds vocabulary very slowly so each new chapter has only one or two new words to learn.  I think the true first step in learning to read is building confidence, and when a brand new still needs lots of help sounding things out reader can read 26 pages on their own in one sitting, well that's as good as it gets!

SO yes, today was good, especially with my Ainsley girl.  Tomorrow I'm excited for some more fun in the afternoon with all three and a quiet morning to work on that other big girl's quilt.  She's VERY excited for her own now.