Lunch

Pryce asked me on the first day of school if I would come eat lunch with him. In fact, he said it in more of a command way than a question way. I told him that I thought Friday would be a good day for us to do lunch. So, today being Friday, I went to visit the boys at school for lunch. Now, my first experience having lunch with a kindergarten class was three years ago with Colin. I will never forget the little girl who purchased a hot dog and then piled THREE packages of mayonaise (yuck!) on top of the meat....what is worse, is that then she carefully took baked (not fried) Cheetos and placed them very ornately on top of the mayo....what is worse than that is that she actually ate the entire creation.....aggghhhh, it really still makes my whole body cringe! So, today was a much different yet new experience. Today there was not a child to gross me out with their food sitting in front of me. Instead, I talked with Pryce about his day. It was quite a nice experience. The one thing I realized, though, is that the kindergartners have a LONG way to go. They are like little newborns who have just entered the world. They need someone to sit them in their seats, they need help with their food and they need some guidance in the rule department. I took note of all of the children getting out of their seats to talk to each other but what really got my attention was when Pryce proceeded to yell over two tables to his friend Matthew. I quickly said "Pryce, you can't do that". His response was "sure we can, we don't get in trouble, it is ok." I told the parapro on my way out that the word on the street was that yelling was more than ok in the lunchroom. Her response was a long sigh. Then I joined Colin for lunch. He, as well as his friends, welcomed MK and me with open arms. I had a good time chatting with all of them. I dread the day that Colin says no to me having lunch with him at school. Even then, I will most likely still go, sit at another table and just wave kindly to him as he ignores me.

On another note, I went to orientation at Mason-Kate's preschool last night. On Tuesday of next week she will begin a Mother's Day Out program. She will go two days a week. Among other things, I was informed that she would need to bring a lunchbox. Man, we don't have any pink ones just lying around our house so MK and I went to find just the right one for her. I had a little cute monogrammed one in mind but as we went down an aisle looking for other school supplies, she started saying "mama, mama, mama"....I looked down at her and she was pointing to a Disney princess lunchbox. I gave it to her. She immediately started naming all of the body parts on each princess, the "eye" being her favorite one to point out. She was hugging it and holding on tightly to it as we continued to shop. So, wouldn't you know, the princess lunchbox is the one that made it to our house.


My favorite quotes this week:

* After telling me that this one child had brought several toys to class, Colin says "You know mom, that kid just doesn't have a brain. It IS third grade, yuh know, and we don't have time for toys"....his tone was set to the "duh" style.

* Pryce's response to my asking him to eat his breakfast "well, mom, we do get a snack at 10:00 and if I eat my breakfast I probably won't be hungry for my snack".....hmmmmm.

Halfway There

Today is hump day, halfway through our first week of school. Mason-Kate and I are halfway through our first week home alone! When she is not opening every drawer in my house to see what she can find to throw away, she is very lovingly pushing her baby doll around (albeit upside down) in the stroller. Her speech is so much fun to watch develop. I love to hear her say "Yeah!"...she has a lot of expression and excitement in her voice. Of course, the expression and non excitement come out when she says "no"....her little head sways violently back and forth, occasionally she will shout "no" but more often we still get the standard and very loud "aghhh". Mason-Kate decided yesterday that since the boys were not around to take Finley out, she would do the job. She walked around holding Finley's leash saying "outside" over and over and over. Finally, Finley gave in, walked over to the door and laid down on his back. I guess he figured that was his only chance to go outside. We have also been spending some time blowing bubbles and playing our little musical recorder. Of course, it is all a process....with the bubbles, she blows some and then spends a lot of time putting the top back on the container, then we repeat. With the recorder, she will play a sound, clap for herself then yell "hey, MA!" which is my command to clap and then usually we have to repeat this as well. If she plays more than one note, then she pauses to dance for a moment. Always entertaining!

Back to School

MK's thoughts on the boys going back to school...

School began yesterday for the boys. Colin and Pryce did not miss a beat when they walked into the school to begin their third grade and kindergarten year. Fortunately, we were all smiles! Pryce's only concern was about naptime. He kept asking me if I was sure he was going to have to rest at school. I said yes. He said "awe, man, it is supposed to be a special day." I had to take a picture of Pryce this morning as he got ready for school. Yesterday he came into our bathroom to do the whole morning routine of brushing teeth, brushing hair, etc. He came in, grabbed a brush, brushed all of his hair straight down and then proceeded to place a "part" in his bangs. After he finished, he looked at himself in the mirror, smiled at his "do", said "perfect" and proceeded to get his shoes on. I thought it was just a one time thing. It wasn't. Apparently, he has decided that the "part" is cool and he spent quite sometime in front of the mirror once again styling his hair this morning. Colin, too, is into this whole "looking cool" thing. I pulled out some new shorts for his first day of school, he put them on and announced that "these are what the cool guys wear....now I look cool". I said "don't you think you dress cool all the time?"...."no" was his reply. Sigh. I am truly missing the boys. They were very entertaining to me this summer as I watched them create the most fantastic stories and games out of nothing. The best part was that they worked together and enjoyed their time being brothers. To see them want to be together is very rewarding to me. For the record, though, I must state that they do have their moments of madness, those moments where you just throw your hands up and wonder what in the world has gotten into them.

As for Mason-Kate, she will begin a Mother's Day Out program next week. We are just hoping that she behaves and doesn't knock someone out :) She has quite the throw coupled with very little aim when toys are in her hand! She has recently begun playing the "recorder" musical instrument, her latest word that we understand is "boom", she is blowing bubbles in the pool and we are teaching her how to go down the stairs in our home. She continues to be such a cutie!

Pryce and his new teacher



MK doing her best belly jiggle



Pryce's "cool" do



Are we done yet?

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