What A Day

Boy, am I tired. I actually got a lot done today with the kids in school. First, let me update on the first day of school.

I go to pick up the boys and run into my whole neighborhood. I was able to dispense wisdom gained from a previous year of picking up kids in the afternoon (for example, why do the cars wait outside of the circle instead of pulling all of the way up? Answer: because the preschoolers get out 10 minutes before the rest of the school and their parents have priority parking before 3:35, except on Friday...no preschool on Friday.) I also ran into Zephan's mom...he's just as upset about not being in Jacob's class as Jacob was. According to her, Zephan read the class list 5 times looking for Jacob's name. When he finally gave up, he looked at his mom and said, "Just great. Another year without Jacob in my class." We're going to try to get them together this weekend.

Daniel was the first to appear after school was over yesterday. He looked tired but was smiling. He said that he'd had fun but his eyes were stinging. I asked him if he had seen the reading specialist and he said no. I asked again, "are you sure you didn't see the reading specialist?" He rolled his eyes and said no. I tried a different phrasing, "did you see Mrs. L today?" "Oh yeah! She asked me where all of my teeth went!" He has no idea what a reading specialist is. He just knows who she is! LOL!

Jacob came out, angry that he only gets one recess this year. He was pretty happy about being told to bring a snack to school. "She's to only teacher that has snack-time!" He was so hoping that she was the one.

So, this morning I drop the kids off at school (I just knew that Mr. L, the principal, would be the one to let them out of the car which is why I spent a good deal of time cleaning the car out yesterday. My van's usually a train wreck.) Hannah and I went to pick up some cleaning supplies and we headed home to clean. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned (I've neglected the house a bit this summer). After about 5 hours of cleaning, I was exhausted. BUT, the first floor looks awesome. There are one or two clutter spots, but I don't know what I would do if we ever got rid of all of them completely. I was actually on my hands and knees, scrubbing the kitchen floor. I went through a couple of cabinets and organized them. I even wiped down the cabinet doors and the kitchen walls. Hannah was so cute, following me around with her little vacuum. She tells me that she loves to vacuum. I wonder how old she needs to be to actually vacuum. I know that Jacob can, and does a good job. Daniel likes to chase people with it. LOL!

This afternoon, I went to pick the boys up. Hannah and I are waiting in the lobby when I see Jacob's 2nd grade teacher walk by with her new class. She stops to say hi and continues with her class. Then, Daniel's teacher from last year comes by and does the same thing. I then spot Daniel walking down the hallway, his teacher a few steps ahead. He stops, looks at me and yells, "I'm supposed to ride the bus!" I look at him and say, "No, you don't ride the bus." Mrs. H, his teacher, comes over and explains to me that Daniel was so insistent that he rides the bus, she took him out to talk to the bus driver, who reassured her that he does not (I had to fill out a form the other night that said that Daniel travels to and from school by car and she thought that maybe I'd circled the wrong thing). I think Daniel's going to give Mrs. H a run for her money!

Jacob can't stop talking about the new Spanish teacher. He and Daniel think it's hilarious that she only speaks Spanish while they are in class. I told him that that's the best way to learn it. If you want to understand her, you have to learn to speak it. Jacob then tells me a story about how the only time he understood her today was when she stopped to yell (in English) at another student for bending some cards.

On a non-school related note, we've seen some very cool butterflies in the yard lately. A monarch here and there, but there are a lot of others that have been feasting at the flowers. There was a beautiful swallowtail that was huge a couple of days ago and, today, I saw one that I haven't tried to identify yet. It hopped from flower to flower for most of the morning. Also, our hummingbird has returned. Actually, I don't know if it's the same one as earlier this year, but he's been seen every day this week. He seems to go back and forth between the feeder and the flowers. We seem to be in a very active nature season right now, and it's fun to watch!