Heigh Ho, It's Off to School We Go!

All ready for school!
The clothes Millie laid out for the second day of school -- notice the crown, necklace, bracelet, purse (which contains her choice of small, stuffed animal of the day), and oh-so-practical shoes! Fortunately, she could see how the shoes might not be the easiest to get around in and agreed with me that the crown does tend to slip off easily!

Little Miss Jane with one of her new friends, Claire Vance (friends who have just entered Darden this year). Such cutie pies!


It's hard to believe my little Millie is now a full-fledged Kindergartener! It was rather exquisite torture dropping her off the first day (of course, for Mommy, not for Millie) with her oversized backpack looking like it would tip her over and her Hello Kitty lunchbox. We loaded up the family to drop her off together and then I walked in with her. Halfway in, she dropped my hand and started running to the door, so eager was she to get there! On our walk to her classroom she proceeded to lecture me, with an arsenal of very persuasive arguments I might add, on why she should be allowed to take the bus ("A lot of the kids that just got off the bus were little like me, so why can't I take the bus?"). Needless to say, I have since waffled and she is now a regular on Bus #146 and is in 7th heaven about it. I have to admit, it is nice to just walk down the driveway to drop her off and pick her up -- even if our neighbor, who was waiting outside with his children yesterday, came over to tell us he had just seen a black bear rambling behind our other neighbor's house (ah, the joys of living in the wild!).

Abby is eagerly awaiting her preschool debut this Friday and hasn't stopped asking multiple times a day when Millie will be home. I'm excited for her to have a chance to have this new experience. Jane is becoming busier by the minute. Today she stood for about a minute on her own -- I live in dread of the moment, sure to happen much sooner than anticipated, when she is able to run around rather than crawl. I'm not sure how I'll keep up! Mark started back to school this past week and is really enjoying his classes. It's hard to believe he's already in his second year!

I have been enjoying having a little more time to read lately, now that things have settled down a little. I just have to make sure to keep the lines clearly defined between the books and reality. A few weeks ago, after I finished reading Harry Potter and having been totally immersed in the world of magic, I returned to Charlottesville without Mark and feeling a little nervous about being home alone at night in the woods, I thought, "Oh, no need to worry. I can just cast a protective charm around the house and I'll be fine!" The scary thing is that for a moment, that thought actually brought me some comfort! Pretty pathetic, no?