Goodbyes and New Beginnings

Last week was quite a busy week as all of my mom's family came to town to celebrate the life of my wonderful grandma. We had a family dinner every night and laughed and cried together. I was doing pretty well until Wednesday. The day started off great. I had my OB appointment and the baby looks great. I got the boys down for nap and was feeling productive by packing a box for the big move. Andrew woke up after about an hour and was burning up. NOOOOOO! That's when I lost it! I couldn't take one more thing right now. The day before my sister in law Jill had called to let me know that Kiersten had strep. So immediately I thought well I should get him to the doctor and started on meds. So Matthew woke up, I got Andrew an appointment and we headed to the pediatrician's office.

Of course, it was just a virus. You'd think I'd be happy that my poor child didn't have strep but no, I was so frustrated. Now we just had to wait it out. I cried the entire way home and the rest of the night. I'm such a baby. I woke up the next morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck but luckily got over myself and was able to face the day.

Being the horrible mother that I am, I drug Andrew to his new preschool open house Thursday night. I would have been so mad if another mother had brought her sick child but I was torn. He was starting a new school, didn't know a sole, had never met the teachers...I couldn't just drop his off the first day! So I kept him by my side and as soon as they told us we could leave we bolted.

Friday was a hard day, it was my grandma's wake. The love and support that poured out from family and friends was truly amazing and uplifting but at the same time it made the whole situation real. I MISS HER! Saturday we woke up to an amazing thunderstorm and knew this was grandma making her grand entrance through the pearly gates. We had a beautiful funeral mass and wonderful celebration of her life at my parent's house following the ceremony. It was an emotional day. As the party was really getting started I told Drew I thought our family was ready to call it a night. We came home ordered Dominos and went to bed. Unfortunately Matthew woke up with THE fever...inevitable. So we spent Sunday and Monday quarantined to our house and literally packed boxes from sun up to sun down.



My amazing mother came by on Monday and kid napped the boys so Drew and I could focus on packing. I mean her mother just died and she was worried about us getting packed, what a mom! It was just what Andrew needed. The poor kid had been so angry and upset the past few days and didn't know how to verbalize this to us except through screaming, throwing fits, and hitting his brother. We know he is sad about GG being gone (they were very close...every time she saw him she brought him the perfect little car or train or book, they had a special relationship), he is confused about the move, and he's not getting enough attention because Matthew is sick and we're trying to pack up. SO by my mom taking him away from everything we got the old Andrew back Monday night.

That brings me to today...THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. The name of his school is The Little School (and he likes to add, but it's really big). I wasn't sure how drop off was going to go but he surprised me! His teacher came to get him out of the car and he said, "bye mom" and hopped out. If Matthew hadn't distracted me by throwing a huge fit in the back I would have lost it. I was so proud of my big boy. He had a great first day, I'm so relieved!
Andrewisms of the day: During our nightly prayer, Drew was praying and he turned to me and said, "mom, I'm really sorry you have a cold." That was the nicest thing anyone had said to me all day! I was so taken aback.

Drew took him in to bed and minutes later we heard the door open, not uncommon. He came in and said, "Dad, I love you more than you can imagine." Well needless to say Drew didn't get upset with him for getting out of bed:)