The only constant is change....

Ruth, Grace and William in front of their school bus on First Day of School.

Grace in class with her teacher Ms. Davis. She is from N.Y.C.

Ruth excited for school.

Ruth in class.

Daddy, William and Grace at school.

Getting ready to leave for First Day of School.

William running to the bus stop.

William on bus.

I know, I know. I haven’t posted a blog in a very long time. I keep telling myself that 1) no one is reading it anyway and 2) the blog entries all have to be sequential. So, I can’t write about what is going on in our lives until I got caught up on Christmas, Birthday’s, Chinese New Year, End of School, summer travels, etc. Well, I realize I just need to start where I am and try to catch up later or I will never write anything! So here it goes, again…

Change. Glorious Change. While growing up the phrase, “The only constant is change,” was always ringing in our ears, it is one of my father’s favorite sayings. I have always prided myself on my adaptability and my talent of taking things in stride. The old adage, “pride comes before the fall,” certainly applies in my case. Well, I have fallen and I’ve scraped my knees too. My little William has started pre-school. I am now home alone in the mornings and feel completely lost.

School started yesterday at Access International Academy Ningbo and I bravely sent three kids off to school, well, actually Bill and I rode the bus with them. William literally ran from our house to the bus stop with Bill’s old backpack knocking him in the head on every stride. Ruth is in 4th grade, Grace in 2nd , and William in Pre-K. The temperature was a balmy 92 degrees, heat index 103, humidity 1000% , or so it felt as we turned them over to their teachers. We were all quite toasty - think Wicked Witch of the West melting, melting, melting from the water.

They all had a great first day. Ruth announced she didn’t have any homework because all they did was “get to know ya’ stuff.” Gracie got dehydrated on her first day, came home lethargic and threw up. William walked in the door, opened his backpack and declared he HAD to do his homework. He promptly got his notebook and crayons and began coloring.

Getting three kids ready to go and out the door this morning, was a little more challenging. William informed me he could do EVERYTHING himself! He washed his face, brushed his hair, got dressed (didn’t match the first time, the second time it was much better), and put on his own shoes. He was ready to go a full thirty minutes early.

Despite his promptness, he wasn’t eager to eat his breakfast. I tried to get him to eat his peanut butter toast, explaining to him that at school you can’t have food whenever you want and I didn’t want him to be hungry. He said, “O.K., Mom! I have to wait for the last bite to go down, down, down to my leg.”

About 15 minutes before leaving, he came to me with his blanket and said he thought he should stay home because he missed me SO SO much when he was at school. Ruth quickly convinced him that he wanted to go to school and he agreed. He dropped his blanket and off he went.

We walked to the bus stop, he boarded the bus, and waved wildly until the bus was no longer in sight. I turned around - wearing my pink accented exercise pants, red slip-on shoes, non-matching green shirt, unbrushed teeth and remnants of yesterday’s mascara around my eyes -and slowly walked back to the house trying to control the tears that were welling up in my eyes. I miss my three little munchkins so much; I even missed them bugging me for snacks, band-aids and constantly pointing out all their mosquito bites.