Dear Elle,

29. First Day.

Elle POV

I gripped Ari's hand as she bounced alongside me, in her school uniform that was much too big for her.  She had her backpack on and she was doing nothing to hide her excitement. I was even surprised that she managed to fall and stay asleep last night. Noah and I had constantly woken up most mornings to 'Is it school day yet?'.

To say she had been ready for this day for a while was an understatement. She had been ready for this day since Nate had started school last year. I can still remember her crying and screaming in the hallway that she was wanted to go to school. We honestly thought she might have been having some separation anxiety because her and Nate were so close.

Nope. She just wanted to go to school.

Honestly, I was hoping that this attitude would stick when she was older and that I didn't have to wrangle her to wake up. Noah and I had to put up a count down calendar in the kitchen,  so she could visualise when she was actually starting. I wish I could have said that Nate was as excited about stating his first year last year, but he was clearly like his Dad.

Too cool for school.

Her cousin, Evan, on the other hand was not as excited about starting school as Ari was. I'm pretty sure he was happy to not even have the word 'school' mentioned.  Lee and Rachel had had many an argument about trying to convince him that school would be fun and that everything would be okay! Luckily for him, he and Ari were in the same class so at least he knew someone. The most awkward thing at orientation though was the teaching thinking that they were twins as she scanned the roll and saw the matching last names.

"Mummy are you going to miss me?", Ari sang beside me as she swung our arms back and forth.

"Of course", I smiled. I really was going to miss my extra pair of hands with the baby. She had been so good with him.

"What are you going to do today?", she asked. There it is. Ari was excited about school, but she had this thing where she also didn't want to miss out on what others were doing. Although, I don't know what she thought I was going to be doing - the three loads of washing and cleaning the kitchen while looking after a newborn weren't exactly - weren't exactly a party.

"A few things, but most importantly waiting until I have to come and pick you up! I want to hear all about your awesome first day", she beamed.

'You too Nate', I grinned as I saw him shrug. He honestly was the chillest kid. An alien could arrive at his school and honestly he would come home and be like 'Yeah, good day'.

I was a little worried about how chill he was with school, but June assured me that Noah and even Lee, was the same at his age.

Yeah, we all knew how Noah turned out.

Nate had definitely grown in the last year. He was looking more like his Dad as each day went on. They even walked the same.

I smiled as I looked ahead at my three boys, Nate walking beside his Dad who was carrying our youngest in the capsule. Noah hadn't taken the day off work this time, but he had taken the morning off and for this , I was relishing the view of my husband in a suit.

Yay for business meetings.

As if reading my mind, he looked back towards me and I grinned.

There were times where I missed working, and usually that happened on days where I was super stressed out. I would hate the fact that Noah got to leave the house, wear things other than sweatpants and not deal children all day. I wanted adult conversations and to be able to eat and go to the toilet without having a child asking me what I am doing. It was only after a particularly hard day, that both Noah, June and Lee (I'm pretty sure they tag teamed) suggested that I try going back for at least a day - just because. It would give me the break I needed and June suggested that it would also be good for the kids not to be around me 24/7.