Monday, May 24, 2010

Last Day of the First Grade

I blinked and it had passed. One day he was trotting proudly into school, showing off his cool new "pack-pack" and clutching a box of Kleenex, the next he was loading up in my car, a sticky, sweaty mess from playing all, sans one front tooth.

He made such incredible strides this year - from not reading much of anything to starting his first chapter book tonight, from counting to adding two-digit numbers, and from not spelling anything to not missing a single word - ever. I somewhat wish his confidence level had gone up a bit more than it did, but I'm still quite proud of how much he's been able to do.

It's been a tough year. The first semester all three of us were in school and money was really tight. Between lack of time and lack of funds, I felt like a rotten mama. Then when Jeff graduated and I shifted into second semester with its tougher classes and my workload at my job suddenly pushed me into fifty-hour workweeks, I thought I'd lose my mind. At one point Braeden asked why I didn't have time to play with him anymore. It broke my heart.

I got out of school two weeks ago, only to get very, very sick - sick enough to finally spend most of Thursday night in the emergency room with a ridiculously fast heartbeat, high blood pressure, and complete inability to catch my breath. Two breathing treatments, a shot of an antibiotic, a couple of pills, and goodness knows how many dollar later, I went home. Oh, and my car's been broken down since I got out of school - just got it back Friday. So between being sick enough to be unable to walk across the house without gasping for air and not having a car to go anywhere, it's been a miserable two weeks. Not how I wanted to spend my first two weeks out of school.

Thankfully, today I felt a little better. And since Jeff was working, I decided (rather spontaneously) when I picked up Braeden that we would have a night out together. We went home for a quick potty break, then headed out to Chattanooga to see Shrek Ever After and get dinner. I figured I could handle walking through the parking lot if I got to sit down for an hour and a half to rest. :) The movie was pretty good, and I tolerated the 3D glasses without a monstrous headache. Then I took Braeden to Kanpai, where he oohed and aahed and clapped with delight at the show our very good chef put on for us. I figured since I was two-for-oh, we might as well go to the bookstore. I picked up 1984, Atlas Shrugged, Wicked, and a couple of books for Braeden, then plopped myself in one of the leather chairs to rest (again) while Bebo played at the train table.

It was a good day. I'm feeling better, even though it'll be a few more days before I'm totally back to normal. School is out for all of us, at least for a couple of months. And I thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend time with my little man, watching him giggle at the movie, cheer on our waiter, and read the first two chapters out of his new book on the way home.

Yup. Life is pretty good.

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