First month of school

After the first month of school, I have learned the following...

-all of my "home time" during the week is consumed with either preparing, cleaning up, or thinking about FOOD. Breakfast in the morning, then clean-up. Come home and make dinner. Clean up. Plan and make lunches and snacks for the next day (5 lunches, 2 snacks for Lucy, 1 snack for Gene) and fill waterbottles. Then it's about bedtime, and I'm not kidding.

-the kids REALLY like cereal in the morning. It used to be just a Saturday morning treat, and I would cook something on the weekday mornings. Now it is just fast, and that's what counts. No one dawdles coming down to breakfast though, and they are all smiles in the morning. Granted, we are eating extremely healthy cereal...did you know kids could like Kashi's Go Lean Crunch? We also indulge in granola, Granola Raisin Bran, and Frosted Mini Wheats. They all like them all.

-it takes us exactly one hour from when the kids wake up until we can be in the car. Half of that time is spent eating the above-mentioned cereal. Apparently, healthy cereal requires a lot more chewing time...

-the kids are all into "art" these days. Lucy is a self-proclaimed artist, and the other two are aspiring artists, I think. Gene spends a lot of his free time coloring (with marker) some snake-like creations that he has drawn...he fills them in with stripes. True to his nature, once he gets interested in something, it becomes a full-time passion. We couldn't get him to touch markers, or any other artistic medium, for his first 6 years. Now he is drawing striped snakey things, and loving it...he probably does 1 or 2 a day, and has at least 15-20 by now!

-Jane is potty-trained now! Maybe a couple accidents since school started, but I proclaim her done. Finally! That was a long 1.5 years... She is also a master of the public restroom now. She can operate a stall door (both lock and unlock it) and is not (as) bothered by the loud flushing noise of some toilets. She can wash and dry her hands by herself, as long as there is a stool. She is proud of herself, I think.

That's all for now...too tired after packing all those lunches. Bed is calling...

There are a TON of good quotes from the kids, who have not said many funny things in the last year (at least it doesn't seem like it) but all of a sudden are spouting them right and left. Is something in the water?

Here's a small sample, but more later...

Lucy, sitting in the front seat of the car, tells Gene and a friend (who are being noisy in the back) to be quiet because they are "making my head fall off!"

Lucy, speaking to Jane...actually, arguing over who gets to be the waiter in their pretend restaurant. And Lucy was determined to outsmart Jane when she said, "Jane, there are two types of waiters. One is the waiter who waits for food. The other is the waiter who brings food."

And my favorite from Jane...I was wrestling with Gene a bit, and pretended to vacuum him while at the same time vacuuming up some crumbs. We do this often with the kids, and they generally like to be "swept" or "vacuumed". But this time Jane didn't see the humor in the situation. She came over with a very worried look on her face and said, "Mama, will you please not vacuum Geno? He's my favorite brother."