Ramblings: First Day Whoopee

So I spent the morning crying and crying after the two biggest crazies went off to school. Tears of joy, that is. My hopes are that the amount of screaming, fighting, name calling, tattling and general craziness will decrease around here...at least during the hours of 8 and 3.

We went up to the school Friday night for their ice cream social and meet the teacher party. Maddie was SUPER excited to be heading to first grade, even though she discovered that her best kindergarten buds got put in different classes.

Alex was SUPER unhappy about having to return to the daily grind of school and homework. But luckily he found his desk and was so excited that it was two away from his super good friend Ben. Jeremy and I made bets on how long he actually stays there. I think last year he was off alone and his desk was like a deserted island away from the rest of the desks after 4 days. The kid likes to chat. And he's easily distracted. And likes to distract others. And he thinks he's hilarious so he's always trying to crack jokes...THAT entire description probably sounds like every parent-teacher conference that Jeremy's mother had for his entire scholastic experience.

The little boys are VERY aware that they are starting preschool this year. But what they have had a hard time grasping is why they didn't get to start today, too. They had their new little backpacks ready and wanted to know when their school bus was coming to pick them up. I had to break it to them that 1) they have to wait one more week to go to school, and 2) they have to be taken into their class each time by their mom and not a big, cool school bus. I'm pretty sure they're worried that because I'm such a total nerd, I'll cramp their style. Get used to it boys! My job is to cramp your style for the next 15 or so years.

Aidan wouldn't be stopped from posing next to Maddie, but she's nice to him and decided to roll with it. Which will work out nice for him in the future when she's got cute teenage girls hanging out here all the time that he'll be trying to impress.

While I was typing this, the kids got off the bus from school.

"How was it?" I asked.
Maddie: "Awesome. Can I have some chips?"
Alex: "I have the best teacher ever. She let us eat IN the classroom. We can bring snacks. Even sugary ones." (At which point I assured him that I would never be sending him with sugary snacks because he has enough energy for 24 people. And I was pretty sure he was trying to slip one by me regarding the sugar-allowance. ) "And she didn't give us homework...and she's probably not going to this whole year." Hahahahahaha. Yeah, right. He may be getting this week off, but I think by next week he'll be griping and moaning about having to do it just like old times.

So--if you want to be the coolest teacher ever, all you gotta do is let your kids eat in forbidden territory, I guess. And assign all the homework on the first day to the moms. I've got two huge stacks of paperwork, permission slips, behavior sheets, information handouts, and bus forms that I get to spend my evening filling out. Twice. You'd think they would figure out a way to conserve paper and energy and only give one set per family because most of the stuff is the same for both kids. But I won't complain because I'm not volunteering for the job of revamping the school-form distribution procedures...

And now, I'm off to harass Alex to get a few more minutes of piano practice in before his lesson, while at the same time trying to figure out something I can fix for dinner that can be cooking while I'm driving back and forth so it'll be done when we get back at 6. The school year grind begins again!