My first week back!

First of all, thank you SO much to all my friends who went out of their way to ensure that my first day back to work was a good one. Seriously, I am so blessed to have such amazing, thoughtful friends! I got tons of emails, text messages, phone calls and Facebook messages encouraging me as I made the transition back to work. And honestly, every last one of them made me smile just a little more :) So my first week back has actually been pretty good. I mean, there are obviously things that stink (like, I don't know....leaving my 8 week old son every morning) but for the most part, it has been a smooth transition. Here are some of the highlights!

My amazing long term sub had all my students make posters and cards welcoming me back and they were hanging all over my classroom when I got there Monday morning! And then, she had the most beautiful (and HUGE) bouquet of flowers brought to my classroom! They smell amazing and make my room seem so much more happy and joyful! On a side note, when the student aide walked in with them, I totally thought they were from Zack who was trying to make up for the fact that he forgot Valentine's day......they weren't. He is not off the hook yet.

Later in the day, my good friend Brittany drove all the way to my school and dropped off a huge, yummy cupcake to have delivered to my room! Now, for those of you concerned about how a teacher would go about eating a cupcake when she is busy teaching but not waiting so long that the cupcake gets stale....I dove right in and ate the whole thing in front of my class, while they were working, while I was yelling at one student to put his Flaming Hot Cheetos away (there is no eating in my classroom...duh.) No shame here. I didn't take a picture of it (because I was stuffing it into my face) but it looked like this....except for more awesome.

Poor little Jonathan has had to make the switch from waking up whenever he wants (usually around 7:30) to being woken up at 6:15 so that we can get out of the house on time. And while that isn't really a highlight, it sure is fun for me to sneak into his room every morning, wake him up gently and get some good cuddles before we go about our day (I say fun, he says annoying as crap) It also hurts my feelings that when he sees me walk in, the first words out of his mouth are "Barney!" Does that mean I look like a huge purple dinosaur? I mean, I know I have a little baby weight left to lose, but seriously, not cool. This is what he looked like Monday morning when I went in. Obviously he had no intention of waking up for a while...

We also had our last little celebration for Jonathan's birthday. Since we didn't have a party, my parents had to bring their presents for him this week. So last night we let him open his last few gifts and attempt to eat another cupcake....if you remember, he hates cupcakes apparently. Last night was no different. He ate one bite and was done. What the heck kid?! His favorite gifts were his new yellow school bus (he calls it a "schoo-bee") and an Elmo towel. He walked around with it on like a cape for a while....pretty hilarious :)

And finally, my little Matthew. He has no clue what is going on. He is just happy to be fed, changed, held and loved on. Luckily, my Mom is watching him this week so that I could buy a few more weeks before he heads to daycare (next week is spring break.) This has been great because she sends me pictures and videos all day :)

So that is that. I made it. I didn't collapse into a crying heap of crazy hormones on the floor of my classroom. I didn't cry each morning because none of my clothes fit. My boys are both as happy as ever. I guess the anticipation is worse than the reality in this case. Which, at the end of the day, is a good thing!