Carter Goes to School!

Today I took Carter to LaFayette to come to school with me for a while. I've received quite a few emails from my coworkers asking when I planned on bringing him in to meet everyone. For a while, I refused to bring him to school, because our school has had so much illness. In October, we had a few days where nearly 25% of our students were out with the flu... I wasn't taking any chances. But, the outbreak has slowed, and I miss them all so much I decided to do it. Today was our holiday luncheon, so staff were coming and going out of the main office to get food during their lunch periods.

Carter slept the entire time... which was awesome. He seems to have gone on a nap strike (he's been talking to my friend Julie's daughter, Annabelle, apparently) and hasnt' slept much during the day lately. I felt bad that no one got to see him when he was awake (he's much cuter awake) but I also refused to wake him up for fear that a screaming baby would attract way too much germy-student attention.

I'm glad I went. It was SO good to see the people I work with and reconnect to the school environment a bit. I'm split about 50/50 with regards to my feelings on going back to work at this point. I look forward to seeing the kids, to having some sort of structure and order to my day, and to reclaiming the "counselor" portion of my identity. But, on the other hand, I'm not quite ready to leave Carter for 8 hours at a time. He'll be in good hands--I have every confidence in both day care providers--but he's still my tiny baby and leaving him with anyone else feels wrong. I'm sure on some level it will be a relief, but I feel like I'll be missing way too much time with him.


Anyway, hooray for a fun day with a really great group of people! Despite my mixed feelings about going back, I know that certain people will make those first few days enjoyable no matter what.