The first day of school

Taking stock in the first day of school:

• After being home with big brothers all summer, Alex returned to sitter’s house, where he asked Jamie, “Are you sure my mom is going to pick me up?” He was also quite concerned about chocolate milk. He needed to have the correct kind, as the kind she tried to use was “spicy” ... She learned later she accidentally bought “sugar-free” Nesquick. Guess Alex knows best. He crashed midway through the morning wearing his Buzz Lightyear costume. Mornings are rough.

• Lucas couldn’t remember anything that happened. Not sure if he even made it to school. Then, I opened his backpack, found mounds of papers I needed to fill out and realized, yes, he made it, and no, it obviously made no impact on him. When asked how his day went, he replied, “It took a wong, wong time, but I did get in twouble.” Thank goodness. I was afraid he’d make I through the entire day without being reprimanded.

• Jacob wants to run for class president. He asked if I would help. I said, “Certainly.” He goes, “I ran in both third and fourth grade but you refused to help me.” Refused? We chatted and agreed mom was actually just uninformed of his decision to run. Jacob exaggerates his word choices. (Really??) He said I am good at art and creative so I can help with the posters, but Henry gets to run his campaign. Henry asked him if he though he would win, to which Jake replied, “I don’t know, but I want to try.” Good enough. We have another campaign blossoming in our family. I did get the “I just hope you’re not in the hospital when I run” ... And I explained the hospital stay is relatively short-lived and I am sure we can get the campaign done around the whole inconvenience of having his baby brother.

• Preschool kicks off Sept. 8. Not sure we’ll have the same problem as we did with Lucas. (Remember the whole kissing/sexual harassment incident?) Alex, I am sure, will bring a whole new set of problems. Mainly, he says what he thinks and pretty much believes the world is his stage. Last night, while he was trying to take our minds off the fact that he had to go to bed, he began shaking his little behind at us, trying to make us laugh. Henry laughed and left the room. Alex kept shaking, and I said, “Alex, stop. It’s not nice to do that to mommy.” He goes, “But it makes daddies laugh.”

My tombstone will read, “She did her best to raise four sons.”