A New Routine Means New Stress

Well folks, it has only been 4 nights of preparing Charlotte for school and I still haven’t fully grasped the fact that I’m going to be doing this new nightly routine for years and years and years.  I feel like I’ve entered a new season of parenthood.  When I get home from work things feel even more hectic than they did before and I am not totally used to this yet.  Now in addition to making dinner I have to make a lunch for the next day, and with a child that treats food like poison, this is no easy feat.  I make her help me, with the hopes that if she picks what she wants she’ll eat it, but she’s pretty much coming home with everything I’ve packed.  One day she ate maybe two bites of something and told her teacher she was saving it for later.  And because she isn’t eating at school she is then requested 47 different dinners and snacks when she’s home.  WHY IS EATING SO HARD! I LOVE TO EAT! JUST LOOK AT THE EXTRA 15 POUNDS I AM CARRYING BECAUSE OF MY LOVE OF FOOD!

Also, I don’t know about any of you but I didn’t give Charlotte a bath every night in the summer.  I was very lax about bath time and bedtime, and now I have to be strict about both and it’s adding to my stress.  When I say it’s bath time she tells Alexa to set a timer for 20 minutes.  When I say it’s bedtime she tells Alexa to set a timer for a thousand minutes.  Last night I told her Alexa should be her mother.  At least I’m getting her to go to sleep before 9 PM though so at least I feel like I’m winning there.

She really is loving school though and I couldn’t be happier about that.  It’s a big change for her, going all day every day, but she goes in with a smile and comes out with a smile.  The other night in the bath tub she was using her toys and pretending they were her classmates and it was the cutest thing.  Last night we went through her Scholastic book catalog and picked out the new books she wants, and she was also really excited that her teacher knew her birthday was on February 27.  So at least I don’t have to worry about her in class and only about the fact that she’s on a self imposed hunger strike.  She’ll eat when she’s hungry, or so people tell me.