"How Many Hours Left?"

is what Harri came into our bedroom and asked us at 10.30 pm the night before school went back.   He was so excited that he couldn't sleep and came and asked us 'how many hours left till school Mum? 8!?'.  I think he was even more excited than I was!   I LOVE school holidays, and am so grateful that Aaron gets to spend all summer holidays with us, but after two and a half months of having them all at home, I was really ready for them to go back.  It makes it easy when I know how much they love school, and that they have such good friends at school.

Yesterday Jay and Harri went back to school, but Noah had a student free day.  They were so excited to see their friends again.


I'm still reeling from the fact that Jay is in grade 6 this year! It only seems like a few years ago that he was in Kinder.  He is so excited for this year as he has a male teacher, and is also a Student Leader.  He gets to run daily PE every morning with other classes, and is so excited about it.  Harri is in grade 1, but he keeps telling everyone he is in 'grade 1,2' as his class is a 1/2. I think he thinks it means he is a bit bigger or something, than his friends who are in a Prep/1.

Noah is in grade 4! Who would've thought!  Especially considering we were told he wouldn't live past his fourth birthday. Last night after an hour or so of getting his things ready for school, it hit me how different it is to prepare things for school for the boys.  With Jay and Harri we just buy a new bag and drink bottle and lunch box, contact their books and buy new clothes and send them off to school.

With Noah I had to make sure I had been to his peadiatrician to have his medication form signed, or he couldn't be given his daily medications at school, type up his news with photos to send to school as his way of sharing his news from the summer, write in his communication book all his daily routines and things they needed to know since last year (like that he had a fractured leg), and pack all the things he needs at school every day - medications, nebulizer, puffers, spacer, and nappies.

Today he went to Newstead Heights and met his new teacher who seemed lovely, but Noah wasn't excited at all and was typical Noah and slept all morning - even after I dropped him off.  This photo shows how bad his wheelchair is right now. He has grown right out of it and doesn't sit in it well at all.  This morning I'd had enough of waiting so went to see if there was any news on his wheelchair.  We had good news and were told that his new wheelchair has finally arrived after waiting for almost a year for funding and for it to arrive.  Now it will take a month or so to have it adjusted to suit him, but it's nice to know that he won't have to have pressure marks on his legs anymore from his terribly fitting wheelchair.

When we dropped the boys at school yesterday, Kobe was so excited to be back in the routine of dropping them off in the mornings, but when he realised that we had to leave the boys at school he burst into tears and didn't want to go.

Kobe was crying all the way out to the van, and was sobbing by the time we got there.  He kept saying 'Jay, Daddy, Harri?' all morning.  I know within a few days he will be back to his usual self and happy to drop them at school, knowing that he is going to see the boys at three o'clock. 

Although life gets a bit crazy with school going back with swimming lessons, basketball and appointments after school, I'm looking forward to having a quiet(er) and clean(er) house during the day and hopefully a bit of free time to do some things for myself that I haven't had a chance to do over the summer.