This is rough time of year. The snow slows down our commutes (which are long enough already thankyouverymuch), and when I work a lot of late evenings like I did over the past 2 weeks, I spend a lot of time driving home in the dark. So I've been crabby this weekend.
As I get older, the weird schedule swings that happen because of work increasingly throw me for a loop. I had one night last week where I got home at 9 or so, and had to be back at work at 8 the next morning. Variations of that scenario happen all the time, and it messes with my sleep. A lot. I have trouble winding down until 11:30 or midnight when I don't get home until 9 or 10, and I'm up at 6:30 every day to get kids ready for school. And I'm definitely an 8-hrs-a-night kind of girl.
Lately I've even been sporting bags under my eyes. I never have bags under my eyes, but I guess now that I'm 40+, I get to have bags under my eyes to go with the schedule-induced insomnia. My fancy new skin routine has helped some, but it didn't come with an eye cream. Either I need to sleep more, or go back to Sephora for more help. Since I don't see the sleep thing improving soon, it's probably option #2.
We had fun sledding today, though. Annabel wasn't too sure about it at first, but Jon coached her into sitting on her sled criss-cross-applesauce and pushed her down the hill. She spent almost 3 hours sledding with the boys from Otto's Scout troop, hiking her own sled up the hill countless times. They both had a fantastic time and came home wet and sweaty and slightly muddy. As we wound down and got ready to leave, Bel said "Mom, I want to come back here on our next stay-home day." (Stay-home day is how she describes weekends and holidays.) She also told a friend that she was going to have a sledding party for her birthday. In June. Dream on, little miss!
Next week is the Kindergarten Roundup meeting, where we get to tour the kindergarten options for our District. I'm 99% sure we'll sign Bel up for the same program where Otto's been, but we're going to the Roundup meeting anyway. Annabel in kindergarten... I hope they're ready for her!
We had a meeting at school last week about Otto, and it went better than the meeting I had with them last year. They're going to try a couple of things in the classroom to keep him on task (schedules, timers), and I bought a watch for him to wear. He needs to learn to better track time and respect schedules and time limits. His reading scores are still higher than average, but his math score fell this fall because he didn't finish the test problems in the time allowed. And mostly that's because he just doesn't seem to care about how fast he is -- he does stuff in his own sweet time. Still, he's been improving. He has some rough spots to work on, but I think a lot of his issues sprout from the fact that he's bright enough to a) be bored by worksheets and b) game the system. If he doesn't want to do something, he either picks up a book and reads, or finds some other way to slip out of the situation. It worries his teacher a lot (and I love her for worrying), but I do think he'll grow out of a lot of it.
Until then, we'll keep working with him on stuff. And looking for ways to keep him challenged. He's reading at a 4th-5th grade level, so it's a good thing he has a personal librarian to help him find books. :)
