A Toast

Mmmmm, Niko's first day of preschool. Here I sit, childless and happy. He was actually supposed to start yesterday, but his immunizations weren't up to date, so after six shots (sorry, son!) he's there today. He cried during his shots, of course, as I would have done if held down with needles sticking out of both arms and legs. But I bribed him with fries and chicken nuggets, and within five minutes he was his bouncy self, pointing out the stars on the Atlas in the back seat.

He was a little clingy today when I left him at the school, which surprised me just a bit. Because he's always so eager to dive into the fray and ditch his mama. So I cuddled him, and his teacher pointed out the stars in the classroom, and they were hand in hand when I said goodbye and left. I think this is a marvelous thing.

I had all of these glorious plans that I would accomplish while he was at school. Making jewelery, for example, since Niko wouldn't eat my supplies. Or refinishing the kitchen table and eventually the piano. But this first day? I am going to put my feet up and toast the world with Coke. Because. We all deserve it. We've worked hard to get here, yes we have. Cheers, babe.

We had our first meeting with our neighbors that we're buying the house from. You know, to do the paperwork, and all of that. I'm sure it would have been charming from an outsider's point of view. The four of us go to the same church and are friends, and neither had agents, so we gathered around their kitchen table while the kids all played together. Another friend from the ward, who used to be a real estate agent, showed up to explain any terminology that we had questions about. Which turned out to be a LOT, because really, the wordage to this! So my friends who had bought houses had warned me about this part, that you end up shelling out money for all of these extra things. Not us. We all looked at each other with our blue, blue eyes, joked our way through, and then ate brownies and ice cream afterward. Really cut throat.

This house is absolutely perfect, down to the Star Jasmine in the front yard. We had that on our mailbox at our old apartment in our last, beautiful city, and that tiny little thing just makes me want to smile.

Niko spent a majority of the time playing with their washer and dryer, of course. Of course. Just getting used to it before the big move next month.

Disregard My Earlier Ranting...No, Wait. Don't.

At long last! Niko starts preschool on Monday, and it is truly a miracle. I can hardly believe it, still.

One of the women in our ward is a teacher at one of the schools, and honestly, this all came about thanks to her. She made phone calls and dropped things on people's desks, and called me one day and said, "Hey, can you bring that IEP over here before 7:45 tomorrow morning?" COULD I? Of course!

She worked some magic. School is about a mile and a half away, and I plan to walk him there every morning and pick him up in the car afterward. I am so relieved. He is so ready for this step.

Niko is still fixated on the same things: washers and dryers, stars, having Cookie Monster dance on his head, that cursed Elmo, making The Grudge sounds. He has this new thing where he gets really excited and runs in place before he starts off in whatever direction. He looks like an old Flintstones cartoon when he does that. Next I expect him to walk off a cliff and continue to walk in the air, not falling until he looks down and realizes that there is nothing under him.

In other news, we just bought our first house! It is absolutely perfect, a fastidiously taken-care of, small home with a fenced in backyard and a little wooden play set. It is truly a treasure, and we should move in about a month. I, of course, am looking forward to packing and throwing out all of Luke's treasures. This is a joy to me, although not to him, naturally. He is already worried.

I will be updating this blog probably weekly, since a friend and I have vowed to do it. And I simply can't let him get the best of me, so there we go.