New routine

We've spent the past few days settling into what will be our routine. Because my parents were here last week and preschool didn't start until this week, we hadn't really adjusted to L's work schedule nor organized our lives properly.

L's teaching schedule this fall requires him to leave before the kids wake up in the morning. Jellybean goes to preschool three consecutive days per week this fall, so that's one more day than she's used to and different than her previous Tuesday and Friday routine. Peanut and I will start a music class next week one day a week too.

So I think I have it all worked out as to the timing of everything, obviously with some give and take here and there. Because of Peanut's afternoon nap schedule, I have to feed her lunch before we get Jellybean at preschool, but that's not a huge deal. (easier than when she still took a morning nap too)

I took Jellybean to preschool yesterday and got her settled in, only to have Peanut dying to get out of my arms so she could also play with the myriad toys surrounding us. One of the teachers made the comment that this will be a hard year to bring Jellybean to school, now that Peanut sees how much fun it is there. When I picked up Jellybean on the playground at the end of preschool, Peanut thought that looked fun too, and said, "I fing, I fing!" ("I swing! I swing!") It was cute, but I also felt a little bad for her. She's stuck at home playing with Mama while Jellybean has a blast with tons of kids and tons of toys. It's hard to be the baby.

Jellybean seems to be having some transition time to adjust to this routine -- L being gone all day plus the three days of preschool. She only napped for an hour yesterday (she's a very regular 2-hour napper), then proceeded to lay down on the floor and cry after her nap when I said she couldn't color right then. It was horrible and so out of character. Change is difficult to cope with for 3-year-olds, I'm seeing. In the meantime, Peanut was zooming through the house saying, "I nunning, I nunning" (running) and just exercised away her stress.

So let's hope today's nap goes better and she's more herself. She was a monster until L came home, and then it was like nothing was wrong. Not too much mystery there as to what her problem was!