Oh, September.

It's happening.  I am busy with a full-time job and no time to ponder, whine, or commemorate.  Instead, I have moments when I flop over a load of laundry in tears, or squeeze Rudy while we lie in a happy heap on the floor when I'm finally home after school and practice, and yes, I realize that both of those descriptions involve my collapsing. It appears that slumping and crumpling are my coping mechanisms this month.  That's just how my September is this year.

And here's what else has occurred while I was at work just after 6 a.m. or weary because of that ridiculous start time.

 We discovered that when Rudy gets a hold of Todd's phone, she likes to take a series of expressive selfies.

 We discovered that she's really good at it.

 Marley and Rudy had their first day of school on a sunny, warm day, and strolled off to the bus stop with Todd to meet up with all sorts of pals while I was running through a just-finished syllabus with a classroom of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds.

Marley is still getting used to the afterschool program she attends once second grade is finished each day.   But Rudy is strutting into her full-day preschool no problem, excited to find out who the helper is and ready to run around with Jackson and the rest of her classmates.  She actually takes a nap again, after over a year without one; sometimes she snuggles Hat Lamb on her little cot under her Special-for-Preschool Doc McStuffins throw, and sometimes she brings an alternate to cuddle so that Hattie can stay safely in her cubby.

 Meanwhile, I'm across town answering work emails and wondering when it will be November.  I love field hockey, and I love coaching my team, but getting home between 6 and 9 p.m. most nights means that I am perpetually, dreadfully behind in my paperwork.  I am still in a bit of denial though, and still finding time to entertain myself by smuggling Twist Hounce into the high school.

 And I'm still finding time to do things like race up to the science classrooms when a colleague emails staff about a batch of snapping turtles hatching.  What I mean is: I was checking my email before school, that note appeared in my inbox, and I immediately excused myself from the conversation in my classroom to run up the stairs and visit the tiny turtles.  That was a day when I was happy to work in a high school, when I remembered how much fun it is to work every day with people who are kind and caring experts on lots of different things, who are just as eager to share their findings and stories with coworkers as they are with students.  I'll start my morning with a baby turtle any day.  

 And then, Marley had a fever that would not go away.  She missed three or four days of school in the first two weeks, and then she was still sick after the second weekend of the month, so Todd took her to the doctor's.  Get ready: pneumonia.  And then, after three days on antibiotics, she still had a fever, so I took my first sick day and brought her back to the doctor's.  It was still pneumonia.  So we got a stronger antibiotic, and by now she's less droopy and miserable and more bouncy and cheerful.  When she's back to attempting handstands in the middle of the kitchen several times a night, we'll know she's completely recovered.

And all the while, this one's still sashaying through her days like, "It's all going to be just fine.  I've totally got this. Let's do the stuff that's fun that we like." Which is much better than weeping into a basket of laundry.  And so, I plan to emulate my Toot's attitude through the month of October.  I advise anyone who's having difficulty adjusting to the change in seasons to do the same.