Britany's Blog

Yesterday, Matthew got his folder signed. This was not just a warning – it was a note from his teacher that said “I will call you”. Yipee.

I asked Matthew what he had done and he told me his teacher made him mad so he stuck his tongue out at her.

Lovely. On his fourth day of Kindergarten, my son stuck out his tongue at his teacher. There’s something to keep for the ol’ scrapbook.

My favorite part of my phone conversation with Mrs. Nieto was when she sweetly asked “Have you seen this type of behavior at home?”. I wanted so badly to say “What?!? Oh heaven’s, no! Our sweet innocent Matthew has never so much as talked back to us!!!”.

But I know myself well enough to know I could never get the words out with laughing out loud. Which might be a tip-off to her that she has bigger problems to deal with than just Matthew’s tongue. In fact, I thought about telling Mrs. Nieto that she’s lucky that’s the worst part of Matthew she’s seen this week.

So today is day five and I thought it would be a good idea to show up for lunch. Friday is pizza day and so I loaded up Samuel and off we went, running late as usual. We arrived at the office just in time for Kinder lunch (can you imagine – they eat lunch at 10:20am!) only to realize I left my wallet at home. With my driver’s license. Which Frisco now requires in order to get through the door. Thankfully, Julie knows me and told me they are giving us a week’s grace period. Whew!

So far, so good. We were through the doors and met up with Matthew in the hall just as he reached the lunch room. I sat Samuel at a table and went to help Matthew on his first time through the cafeteria line.

He was so excited! And the cafeteria ladies assured me I could charge Samuel’s lunch to Matthew’s account, which was a good thing since I had no money with me.

We had just taken our seats and started opening our milk bottles when the fire alarm went off. I happened to be sitting with a perfect view of the kitchen and saw these automatic garage-type doors begin to close right in the midst of all the Kindergarteners. In moments, the teachers sprang into action and in an impressive display of efficiency, got all the children lined up and filing quietly out the cafeteria doors to a sidewalk on the far side of the parking lot.

I thought it was surprising that they would already be having a fire drill so early in the year bur the teachers appeared calm and even relaxed so I assumed it had to be a drill.

My first clue that I might be wrong came when the fire truck with lights flashing and sirens on came wheeling into the school parking lot. When a second truck showed up followed by five Frisco ISD trucks and even the fire chief, I knew it was a real fire.

We sat outside for quite a while watching the firemen go in and out of the school. At one point, there was water flooding out from the service doors to the cafeteria, and when we went back in, I could still smell the smoke. Something burned and I can’t be sure but I’m just betting it was one of those pizzas.

They served everyone lunch in their rooms today and Matthew did great until he saw his tray and realized they had given him plain milk instead if strawberry and cucumbers instead of corn. He started to really cry and I couldn’t calm him down for a while. But he finally came around. That’s when Samuel started to get upset because he wasn’t going to get a tray after all.

I thought it best to make my exit quickly. When Matthew realized I was leaving, he got upset all over again and wanted to come home with me. I knew he needed to stay and left as quickly as I could, but when I got home, the whole week’s worth of emotions flooded over me and I finally had a good cry over my sweet little Matthew starting school.

Now I just have one question: Is it the weekend yet????

Below, I will attach a couple of pictures from lunch today.

I wish I was a poet because I have such random thoughts rolling around in my head and if I could fit them all together, they might make me rich and famous. But since they
might make me a candidate for the funny farm instead, I will use someone else’s creativity.

I have seen this many times before but for some reason, it just fit today perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0ZpuA8_YYkb

In case you are not to the school age yet (God bless you, the poopy diapers WILL END, I promise!) or are long past it, here’s a quick reminder of life in the school zone:

6:45am – wake kids up, deal with the clothing drama (“Why can’t I wear my airplane sweater to school today? Just because it’s going to be 105 today? I’m ALWAYS cold!!!”). Deal with Nintendo drama (WHY can’t I play for 2 minutes? WHY is there a rule that we can’t play Nintendo before school?). Deal with hair drama. Deal with brushing your teeth drama. So on and so forth. Pack lunches. Remember backpacks. Drive carpool. Try not to be late on your first week of school. There will be plenty of time for that later.

8 am – drop kids off and come home to begin sorting through the MOUNDS of paperwork that has already come home from school, much of which requires my signature and assundry other information.

Spend the free time I have dealing with the four-year-old drama while constantly reminding myself of how sad I will be when he starts school.

During naptime, sit down and reply to some emails. But then remember that everyone is running out of clean clothes and so end up spending naptime dealing with the – I kid you not – 10 plus loads of laundry per week.

After school is a plethora of lessons, practices, and sibling drama. Everyone is tired and cranky and so it becomes a survival of the fittest scene until bedtime, at which time the kitchen must be tackled.

Not that I’m bitter or anything. Just exhausted. And badly in need of a maid. And possibly an intervention from that gal from Super Nanny.

So we’ve survived two full days of school and thus far, no major drama. Peter’s teacher called tonight just to tell us how much she loves him already (Seriously? After two days?) and Matthew already learned Kindergarten has consequences too. I would elaborate but when I quizzed him about it, he had absolutely no recollection that any such thing had occurred. That’s what we like to call selective memory here in our home.

As long as I’m on the subject of school, I just have to ask: does anyone else find it oddly ironic that the only time I can remember that I need to buy a wireless earpiece for my phone is while I am waiting to pick the boys up from
school? And so that prompts me to begin surfing the Internet on my cellphone for the perfect earpiece? And that when the line starts moving at a snail’s pace I find it hard not to continue my online search? I mean, wouldn’t it be funny if I got a ticket for that? What would my defense be? “Well, officer, I can’t remember to do my online shopping at home so I was forced to do it here in this school zone so I could buy an earpiece and keep from running over any of these precious little boys and girls!” I don’t know why but I find that hysterical.

Maybe it’s time to stop hitting the sauce before bed. I’m just kidding. It’s probably those prescription drugs making me feel so good.

And I have plenty of photographic evidence!

Ready for school!

Backpacks are fully loaded!

3rd grade, here I come!!!

Ready to start Kindergarten!

Matthew's teacher, Mrs. Nieto

First thing this morning – like, it wasn’t even 7am yet – Peter pops into our bathroom, fully dressed and ready to head out the door.  I asked about his brothers and Samuel was up (of course) but Matthew was still asleep (of course).  Peter wanted to be the one to wake him up, and I foolishly agreed.  Long story short, I found poor Matthew sitting at the table with his head drooping into his cereal bowl while Peter talked a mile a minute at the boy.  I finally dragged Peter away and asked Matthew how he was doing.  “I’m tired” was his answer.  Then he told me how Peter woke him up too early and interrupted his good dream.  As soon as Matthew quit talking, Peter interrupted with his side of the story.

Apparently, when Peter woke Matthew up, he did it with a “Wake up, sleepy head!  You don’t want to be late on your first day of school, do you?” followed by a discourse on words that end in -ology.  You may think I’m kidding, but I am not.  Peter explained that he wanted to give Matthew a head start in KINDERGARTEN so he taught him the word “lexiology” which means, the study of flags.  Then he moved on to geology and the like.

I think Matthew will be ahead of the class if he can make it through the day without eating glue, if you know what I mean.  IT’S KINDERGARTEN, after all.

Anyway, by the time he was done eating, Matthew was pumped.  He had a great day at school, except for when he started throwing mulch at our neighbor’s boy in the pick-up line.  I don’t think it was the mulch so much as it was Peter tackling him on the hot pavement that ended Matthew’s day on a rough note.  Oh, and maybe the reprimand by the principal when she walked by and caught my two sweet boys arm wrestling on the ground.

Yes, it’s going to be a long year.  But at least it’s just Samuel at home.

Yeah, right.  Want some photographic evidence of my first day with Samuel?  First, he dumped out all his toys in his room in the 20 minutes I sent him to play alone.  Then, when I sent him up to pick them up, he stuffed them all under his bed:

Then, when I uploaded the pictures from this morning, I found some I am pretty sure I didn’t take:

I’ll give you one guess:

Yeah, it’s going to be a long year.

No matter what! So far, we’ve gotten our back to school haircuts. Next we’re off to buy new shoes. Pics below…

Strep is winning. Enough said.

Here are some pics. Oh, and the suitcases? They were for the boys’ trip to see Grammy & Poppy tomorrow. For four days. Alone. While Brad & I spent the week here. Also alone. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear Peter has strep. Again. Two days after finishing his antibiotic. Curse you, strep !!! You have come from the pits of Hell to make my life miserable!!!

If you can call sitting with my feet propped up, blogging from my iPhone, waiting on Brad to bring me home some Scotty P’s, miserable. Guess life really is all about perspective, isn’t it?

The other pics – the backpack ones – are a sad reminder that in less than two weeks, my sweet little Matthew will start Kindergarten. And that he needs a haircut, but I digress.

Oh yeah, and the laundry baskets?  See how they are sitting on a nifty shelf above my laundry sink?  My handy dandy husband put that up for me last night!!!  Now the laundry baskets won’t fall on my head when I open the fridge in the laundry room!  Yea for Brad!!!

Final pic is of Samuel playing on my computer.  There was a story there.  Once.  But I forgot it.  So enjoy the pic anyway.  And may your week be strep free. And filled with plenty of Scotty P’s.

…your four-year-old only wants to pretend-play like he’s sick and you’re the doctor. This morning, Samuel wandered into the guest bedroom which has also become my own little office space. (You know what’s the best part about combining the guest bedroom with my office? Now my office has a bed in it!)

So I was taking full advantage of the bed feature in my office when Samuel wandered in with some toys. He told me he had a headache and needed to see the doctor. The colorful tube was my telephone so I could answer when he called to make his appointment. The stick was so I could swab his throat.

Yeah. There’s just something wrong about that.

After his exam – the strep test was positive, of course – he took his pretend prescription to Market Street. Then he showed me the green toolbox where he had taken his headache and locked it up. Now he tells me it’s a tummy ache and thank goodness he brought some additional tools.

Meanwhile, I’m trying not to overdose on Motrin. I keep forgetting when I took my last dose. Not that it helps with the pain. It’s really just keeping my fever down below triple digits.

Have I mentioned how much I hate, despise and loathe strep?

Well, I hate strep with almost the same amount of passion with which I love my iPhone. (Bet you didn’t think I could work mention of my iPhone into a post about strep, did you? That, folks, is pure talent. Literary genius at work!)

Well enough about me. How are all 5 of you who are still reading? Anyone else sick? I hope not. Wishing you a healthy end of the week.

If you’re thinking that looks like the room at a doctor’s office, you’re right! This time it was my turn for a strep swab and…ding! Ding! Ding! It was positive! Yippee skippy!

Well, when Samuel woke me up at 4am with complaints about his bottom hurting, I thought to myself “That’s weird”.  I have been dealing with his stomach & bottom issues for about 2 weeks now.  All along, I have attributed it to stomach issues and pretty much dismissed him when he complained.  But when it woke him up, I knew I needed to investigate.

Poor, poor Samuel.  He has a rash that looks like some sort of evil diaper rash on his bottom.  Even though he hasn’t been in diapers in a year.  Plus there are little red dots surrounding the rash that look like chicken pox or measles.  I saw the dots and the rash and immediately I knew – he has “strep bottom”.  I’m sure there’s a better name for it, but that’s actually what the doctor called it.  Hurray.

So they swabbed his throat and bottom and gave me an antibiotic – the same amoxil that the other two boys are one (thank goodness for free antibiotics from Market Street) – and now we are only 24 hours from having 3 non-contagious kids.  That doesn’t mean me or Brad are clear and free but so far, so good.  Knock on wood and throw some salt over my shoulder.

So here are the infamous swimming pics.  I think I am finally in a position to move them from the office hard drive onto my blog site.  Just remember – I warned you they were marginal, at best.

Matthew was the brave one who went first

Matthew learning to kick

Peter swimming next

Peter kicking

On the first day, Samuel didn’t swim because he had just had all his shots.  And on the following days, I apparently forgot my camera.  Or wiped out the photos without uploading because I can’t find any of Samuel swimming.  Maybe if we have more lessons before the summer is over, I’ll get some.

On another note, I served the boys the most wonderful supper on the patio last night.  Just look!

Supper on the patio!

It was French Dip Sandwiches, homemade potato salad and homemade fruit salad!  Yum!  Unfortunately, the boys were not as excited about it as I was.  While they were eating, I noticed six eyes peering in through the windows…I even took a picture of them:

Looking out at the boys looking in at me

Call it instinct.  Call it my gut.  Whatever.  I knew something was up.  Little did I know, something was up literally.

Hmmm...

What IS that thing???

Close-up

Ewww…it was a piece of meat!  Peter had been catapulting his sandwich piece by piece into the fan, just to see how far the blades would throw the food.  Argh!!!!

Now you tell me – what would you do with THIS???

Peter - photo taken by Matthew

Also – not that I’m counting the days or anything – but it’s officially August and that means we are only 3 weeks away from the start of school!!!  Hurray and Hallelujah!!!

Well, I was all geared up to post all those swimming pics from my laptop.  Unfortunately, they will have to wait until another post on another day since they are on a the other computer and it is shut down.  I know, I know – too many computers and too many drives.  It’s a full-time job just managing our home network. (Not really.  I just like to say things like that to make myself feel better about playing The Sims 3 on my iPhone for hours on end.)

So anyway, I do have some photos to share.  Have a good day.  I need to get back to my game.