My Annual Depression...

My annual depression is setting in today, because this is our last Monday of the summer.

Technically, I'll still be "off" next Monday, because I don't have to report until Friday, July 31. I've got so much work to do in my classroom before Open House on Monday, August 3 that I'll never be able to do it all in those two days. The school will be open that weekend in between, but I just hate to spend Saturday and Sunday at work and be totally stressed by Open House.

We can get into our classrooms again on July 27. So, I'm taking Katie Anne back to day care full time starting that Monday, and I'll have those four days to work in my room before "officially" being at work on July 31.




I'm very sad about taking her back early, but everyone I've asked for advice (Saunders, my mom, and my dad) assure me that this is the best idea. As my dad said, Katie Anne's had six more weeks home with her mom than most other two-year-olds this summer... most people just had one week of vacation, and their kids are obviously just fine.

I know I'll be totally overwhelmed on Friday if I walk into the piles of boxes that I know are waiting to be unpacked, and I don't want to be at school on the weekend while Saunders and Katie Anne are at home. Also, my mom is taking off Monday and Tuesday to help me in the classroom, and my dad's planning on helping that week, and I want us to be able to get a lot done.

Also, after reviewing my post from last year, apparently I did the same thing last summer - and I don't see any ill effects in Katie Anne's persona from it. :)

I know she's going to have a hard time this year... she's not done too well at drop-off the four days we've put her in day care as a drop-in this summer. I think this is the first summer that she's really going to be old enough to realize that she's not at home with me anymore.

However, I also know that she loves her new school, loves her two teachers Ms. Angela and Ms. Christy, and has made many new friends... she talks about Chauncey, Audrey, Skyla, Haley, Talon, Jackson, and several other kids by name all the time, even though she's only seen them four times since May. She looks forward to playing on the awesome playground, she's getting really good at her before-meal prayer because they emphasize it in her class, and she's singing several new songs that she's learned at her new school. So, even though I know she'll cry at first, I know she'll also have fun playing with other kids, getting outside more without her bug-fearing, sweat-hating mom dragging her down, and doing fun activities with her teachers.

(Also, as a day care side note, I heard on Friday from a former manager at Katie Anne's old day care that our two favorite teachers, Ms. Amanda and Ms. Edna, have both been laid off. So, I'm VERY glad we moved Katie Anne.)

So, we're going to enjoy our last week together this summer by doing some of our same favorite activities. We're not packing the week too full - in fact, today we're not doing anything. We're going to go to the library for Toddler Time, go to the movies, meet people for lunch, hit the Tellus museum, go to the playground, and just generally have a good time together!

At the end of the week, we'll pick up Katie Anne's new backpack after it is monogrammed, we'll pack it with a change of clothes and a cuddly blanket, and next week we'll start back into the daily grind, all while looking forward to next summer when we can do all this fun stuff together again!