Aloha!

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Posted by Rebecca Bingham, Special Needs Mommie | Posted in The Special Needs Mommy | Posted on 26-08-2010

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I have spent the last hour catching up on family blogs and Facebook posts. All over the internet are pictures of kids heading off to the first day of school. I love to see the shiny smiles (because it is still new and exciting and everyone has carefully combed hair) and new backpacks (still clean and holding their shape because they haven’t been used as footballs or pillows or projectiles yet). Fall is in the air and the promise of routine and schedule surrounds parents with a familiar welcome.

We are putting off all that stuff because we are still in Hawaii. The kids are missing their first three days of school. My fifth grader is wearing her first day of school outfit in protest (long pants and a heavy shirt) and refusing to go to the beach (cry me a river). The kindergartener keeps hoping we will forget to send him when he gets home. He keeps giving us helpful suggestions like “Hey, I have an idea, maybe we should live in Hawaii?” and “I think kids don’t have to go to school here. Let’s stay”. Tempting.

I’m not sure if it is the sun or the water or all the junk food, but we have had very little trouble this trip. The kids were amazing on the plane (I was flying on my own) and aside from being kicked out of the pool area the first day (a small incident with Cubby involving a major freakout, four security guards and some tears all around) we have had smooth sailing.
 
 I’ll savor these memories from our trip. We aren’t walking the line of trying to force kids to do therapeutic stuff that they don’t want to do and trying to keep the peace. We are just relaxed, sunburned, and the kind of happy tired that comes from swimming all day. I can’t remember our family ever having this.School will start and bring with it all the typical stuff. The kind of worry that I can’t help but have. The kind that involves waiting for the phone to ring and having the principal or office telling me to come get him (again) or that he is banned from playground time. That is also part of the routine of school. It is what it is.

Today. Today I am going to order another Lava Flow, hit the watersides again with my kids, and possibly eat even more junk food. I might even consider Cubby’s request to just live here forever.

Happy first week of school everyone!!

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