Ninjas don't wear cowbells

Robby and Drake, first day of 3rd and 1st grade.

School is back in session and this is a whole new world to me.  For the first time in over 8 years I have no children home with me during the day.  What did I do with my first day of freedom?  I had early coffee with a great friend, followed by grocery shopping, followed by my very first day of work and earning a wage in 12+ years.  *sigh*

I had the day off today and it started out fantastic!  Coffee, pedicure, couple of errands, time with Gen, a little cleaning, donation drop off and all before 1pm!  Off to pick up my cherubs from school.  

Robby is LOVING his class and teacher.  No problems settling back in at all.  Drake is learning a whole new side to school not to mention trying to make it through a long day.

Drake's teacher meets them in the morning in the commons (a.k.a. lunchroom) so he has about 20 minutes of sitting in the lunch room with other kids as they eat breakfast.  Do you see where this is going?  Are we all clear on Drake's favorite pastime?  The first day of school he managed to score a free breakfast.  Today he tried again but Robby caught him and couldn't get Drake to leave the food line so he had to tell a teacher.  This resulted in a 8:23am call to me (they were dropped off at 8:10am) letting me know that I need to have a chat with Drake about how the food services works and when he is allow to use his code.  I thought it was no big deal because I was NEVER going to give Drake the code.  That would just asking for trouble.  Unfortunately a well meaning para educator taught Drake to memorize his code.  ARGH!

Fast forward, another Drake incident, fast forward, headache starting, fast forward, I fell again, fast forward, playing at the park after school.  STOP!

I had a wonderful time chatting with the Moms at our usual picnic table and then I see Drake walking across the grass with a small, green, biodegradable bag.  

Me:  "Drake, where did you get the green bag?"

Drake:  "Over by the sign with the dog on it."

Me:  "Where are you going and why do you have the green doggy bag?"

Drake:  "I need to find someplace private."

Me:  O.o  "Why?"

Drake:  "I have to poop."

Me:  "In the doggy poo bag?  Right here at the park?!"

Drake:  "Yeah."

Me:  "How about we walk over to the bathrooms instead?"

Drake:  "Okay, but this would have been faster." (clearly exasperated)

For this and every other time I am mere seconds away from a disaster, I am thankful for my Drake-dar.

*"Ninjas don't wear cowbells" is courtesy of Michelle.  It was her reply to my plea to have the boys wear cowbells so they would stop sneaking up behind me and scaring me senseless.

B.S.C...

A friend of mine has a blog that I love to read. Her blog is titled B.S.C. and for the life of my I could NOT figure out what it meant. I finally had to ask her; Bat Sh!t Crazy. TOTALLY appropriate for today.

Bob has been working from home since Monday and he doesn't start his shift until noon. Monday he worked until midnight but tonight and last night only until 9pm. So when I would normally get a break from the boys I am fresh out of luck.

This morning Drake as MIA for a few minutes, turns out he was in the kitchen. He was very quiet, too quiet. He decided to give himself another hair cut. Ugh. At first glance it didn't look too bad, then he turned his head. Bald spots...five of them. He was very proud to inform us that he used his scissors to do it. There is no point in trying to even it out because the spots are nearly to the scalp. Of course Robby went into the kitchen to give himself a hair cut too. Can't let Drake get all the spotlight. At least Robby's isn't noticeable.

I will spare you the majority of the day and just sum it up as them arguing, whining, yelling, fighting, can't be near each other, can't be apart, "I hate him", "He's the bestest brother ever"...

This evening they make a cave of darkness. They covered the coffee table with blankets and then one of them gets inside and tries to identify an object that the other hands inside. Dirty sock, stuffed animals, cat toys, orange, banana, watermelon...watermelon?! NO FOOD IN THE CAVE OF DARKNESS!!! "Okay, Mom..." On his way to putting the watermelon away, Drake drops it. Eff...

So yeah, I'm a bit B.S.C. tonight and wishing I had a baby sitter, a righteous cup of coffee and solitude.

Amateurs...

I had a very productive and interesting day today. Started my morning dropping Robby off at school and then Drake and I ran some errands. We got cocoa/coffee and spent the morning together before his evaluation appointment. That was a little nerve wracking but everything came back normal and all 6 stations reported that he was very intelligent and there were no concerns. We will still need to do a deeper evaluation but I am feeling much more confident.

After the evaluation was over, I took him to McDonald's for lunch and to play. While I was trying to eat my lunch another Mom scooted over next to me to chat. She was there with her son who was a year younger than Drake. Since I was busy eating, she did all the talking; this was the beginning of her end. She was telling me just how rowdy her son was, that he and his Daddy like to play fight so he is very energetic. She told me stories of always having to keep an eye on him because he would get into everything. She shared numerous occasions where he did something "so gross" that she nearly passed out. I smiled, chuckled a couple of times and kept listening. After about 20 minutes she told me that she hoped I didn't think she was a horrible Mom because my son [Drake] was so calm and quiet and her son was a raving lunatic.

I decided to take pity on her and told her of the time I couldn't find Drake until I started to follow the "bread crumb" trail of steak knives he left for me and the time that I discovered him eating a cat hairball. I think it was when I shared the story of Drake at St. Edwards park putting "some sort of a balloon" in his mouth in the men's restroom that she was finally pushed over the edge.

I am probably one of the last Moms you want to get into a competition with about the unbelievable things your children have done. She left shortly after that, not sure why...

Amatuers.

Preschool Riots

Had to pick Drake up from Montessori early today in order to have time to get Robby and make his dentist appointment. As I am sitting in the hall waiting for him to finish I hear chanting begin in the classroom. I then realize that the chanting isn't anything the teachers are leading. It sounded more like picketing or a prison riot. The slogan alternated between "WE WANT CIRCLE TIME!" and "WE WANT SNACKS!". Needless to say I found this humorous until I realized that Thing 2 was leading the charge. O...M...G...! He was so impassioned in his riot that he couldn't hear me calling his name (loudly, I might add) from a mere 3 feet away.

THANKFULLY it was an early pick up and other than the teachers, there were no witnesses to proclaim "Jeez! Who brought THAT kid?"