I woke up this morning looking at my calendar and thinking about how quickly this summer has gone by. Obviously with the move it has swept in enabling us to take the days easy, judging by everyone’s mood and energy there have been many days that have been very forgiving of our need to relax. That’s why I dread the beginnings of school. Call me crazy but I like the idea of spending the time with the kids and doing things, I’m a “doing things” kind of girl. Unfortunately, with little in the way of pre-planning the summer by goes by exceptionally quickly.  We have lots of good memories to put into our scrapbook. We have a new chapter of life that we are embarking on and I have to say that it scares me a bit.

Much like the kids this is all new to me. I think I’ll feel like a kid again waiting on the “Blacktop” for the teacher to arrive. I’m anxious for the kids because starting out is always tough no matter what age you are. Sydney’s brother has luckily found a couple friends on the street  that are going to the same school so at least he’ll have some friendly faces amongst the crowd. Sydney has finally met a little girl on the street and she is ecstatic. She and her brother were playing outside the other day and a bunch of neighbours were outside talking. Along came a vision of glory for Sydney, a little girl (they run few and far between on our street). Sydney invited the little girl in and when she opened the front door she was bursting to introduce us. She yelled out, “Mommy, look a girl!” She didn’t even remember her name all she knew was that she like Hannah Montana and High School Musical and she wanted to see the Guinea Pig. They played for a while in her room and the little girl had to go.  As she was leaving and the parents were finishing up our conversations Sydney walked up to the wrong mom and cheerfully asked, “Can her and I have a sleepover one day”. Oh my goodness, it was a priceless moment but it quickly turned sour. Sydney realized it was not the right mom and quickly looked around for me in a panic. She raced over to me and hid behind me absolutely balling. I guess in her mind she went out on a limb and asked a question of someone she didn’t really know only to have it been the wrong mom. A good learning experience for her as she survived despite making a mistake and I was hoping we could turn it around for her. Luckily the mom to whom she approached is familiar with our situation and when she looked at me thinking she had done something wrong an unspoken, “that’s what I’m talking about” look was enough to explain what had just happened. I took Sydney from behind me and said I’m sure that we can arrange something and we’ll just have to ask her mom.  But at the moment when Sydney lost it and came running to me the little girl looked at me completely bewildered and asked, “What’s wrong with Sydney”. How do I explain it? She’s upset because she finally got the courage up to talk to someone she barely knows and spoke to the wrong person and I was 20 feet away and panic set in and the situation overwhelmed her. No, instead I just said, “She wanted to ask your mom something and instead asked a different mom and I think it just made her feel a little funny”. Right or wrong approach…who knows I tried. This is the stuff that is going to be tough for all of us in the next couple months.

In the old schoolyard and with all those old friendships the tears were very rarely questioned. All the kids knew was that something had triggered her off. Some tried to console, some left her to her own devices, some being kids just said, “That’s just Sydney”. And it is true, “It’s just who Sydney is” but boy oh boy here’s where parenting 101 for Socially Anxious Children will really come into play.

We get to meet the new teacher this Thursday and hopefully a familiar face will help ease a little bit of the anxiety on the first day. Oh who am I kidding! As the days to September 2^nd approach you can be rest assured the time I spend with the kids will suck every last ounce of summer out of it.