First Day of Freedom - 2012

I danced a little jig and turned up the tunes this morning, when three of my monkeys got on the school bus and it magically carried them away. Priceless. 

You know that feeling in your gut when you kindergartner goes to school for the first time? Proud, sentimental, anxious, a little sad, and possibly elated? I didn’t feel any of that. He was on the bus and gone before I knew what happened. My neighbor had to inform me that he jumped up and down with joy when the bus pulled up, and she also pointed out that my #2 boy had kindly sat next to my new kindergartner. So, you’re probably wondering if I was already drinking celebration cocktails when the bus arrived, because how could a mom miss all those precious details on her kindergartner’s first day? Well, it starts with having 4 monkey-boys, then throw in a bus that’s 45 minutes late, and a #4 monkey who runs off to who-knows-where at the wrong moment. Then add the sign on the bus window, wrongly stating the bus is going to a different school. Throw that in the mix with not recognizing the bus driver or any of the kids on the bus, and you get why I was in deep worry about the bus situation and missing what was important. Sigh.

Can I get back that first-day experience? Sure, we’ll just have a re-do tomorrow. I’m getting adept at the re-do, because I’m pretty lousy at getting anything right the first time around. Maybe that should be my slogan. “We can re-do it!” I sure am thankful to my husband for taking pictures. 

Anyway, get on with the day! I’ve got so much on my list that I’ve been waiting to get done until school starts! Starting with washing all the smeared and finger printed windows and sticky doors, right on through cleaning all the baby stuff out of storage; my excitement is palpable. I’ve got a list long enough to keep me busy for weeks. It’s doubtful I’ll miss those monkeys at all.

What’s on the agenda today? The baby stuff – out of my house – and pronto. I’m yanking it out of storage and cramming it into my brother’s car this weekend. Anything that doesn’t go is getting donated. After that I’m going to wash the windows, because I’m really damn tired of looking through snot-smeared glass. (I'm not kidding. My kids wipe their noses on anything but tissues.)  

Whoa, wait a minute. I still have a kid around here somewhere. #4 monkey is home. Oh, and that kindergartner is half-day, so he’s only gone for a whopping 3.5 hours. Looks like I’m striking items #2-infinity from my list and hoping I get 1 single thing done today. Rats! Looks like my list will keep me busy until next summer after all. 

Can I get that re-do now?