First Day: Elementary School Style

Watch out, World. Sadie Lou has officially joined the ranks of elementary school yahoos.

On Monday, these two started school - Sadie in kindergarten and Benjamin in third grade.

Yes, she donut rolls her socks. Totally her idea.

We are already hearing tall tales of what goes down at school. I have to dangle this out there for our wildly imaginative, drama-stirring-up girl: "I am going to email your teacher about that to see if she tells me it's true." Sadie will inevitably retract whatever story was told...the one about being sent to time-out for half a day, or watching movies in class (on Day 2?!), or about how another kid was already kicked out, or how her friends swapped food with her at lunch in order to trick their moms. (Seriously, whaaaaat?)

She comes by it honestly, though. Ever since watching the movie Big Fish, the Papa decided he needed to be that kind of figure in the kids' lives. Breakfasts are often spent discussing how he had a prodigious mustache when he was a mere infant. You can see where she might want to join the ranks of the grand  storytellers.

But things are off to a good start, barring the disappointing reality of homework. And long days. I try to make up for it with interesting after school snacks, however, three days in and I am already straining for ideas. The Papa and I are pretty excited that everyone crashes into bed by 7:00 and hardly a peep is heard after about 15 minutes. YES.

Sharing vs. Caring

One of Sadie Lou's favorite sayings is, "Sharing is caring!" She especially likes to use this in situations when someone else is not sharing with her. Never is it employed when SHE is hording toys. Anyway, the other day a conversation went something like this.

Oli is playing quietly with a car of some sort.

Sadie Lou:    Oli, can I please have that car?

Oli:   No. I paying wiff it.

Sadie Lou:    Oli!!! You need to share with me!

Oli:   NO, Sadie!!

Sadie Lou:    But Oli! SHARING IS CARING!!!!! If you don't share, you don't care!

Oli:    I NOT caring!!!

Little Rascals? Bonnie and Clyde? Thing 1 and Thing 2?

This is the work of one Sadie Eloise and a boy sometimes called "Oli Bug."

I was down the hall in my bathroom doing, I don't recall what...plucking stray eyebrows? Brushing my teeth for the first time that day (somewhere's around 4PM in preparation for The Papa's return from work?  It happens...), or perhaps applying another round of deodorant on that sweltering afternoon?

I was only out of sight of these two rabble-rousers for less than 10 minutes. Truth. I heard them cheerfully chattering, sounding sweetly happy, getting along...that last one was the tell-tale sign, the sign that should have had me bolting down the hall to see what was going on.

As it was, I sauntered through the house happily, thinking of how I had a chicken roasting in the oven and did not need to run around, a sweaty mess, before The Papa would return to a Really Nice Meal. And then I saw this. Only when I saw it, the toilet was still overflowing.

They did a sweet job, these two, of unwrapping an entire BRAND NEW roll of toilet paper and getting it all to fit into the bowl. They even tore up the cardboard tube and put it in for good measure. And then they attempted to flush the evidence.

So, yes, you are looking at a layer of water that covered the entire bathroom floor and extended out into the living area. It does have some nice reflective qualities. (Don't mind the water damaged wall behind the toilet. The folks who lived here before us also had a house full of kids and no doubt dealt with these types of events. That drywall is going to need replacing even if my kids are perfect angels for the rest of their time here.)

But the trouble with the mayhem caused by two and three-year-olds is that logical consequences just don't work. They can't exactly clean up a mess of this magnitude. So...Bonnie and Clyde got to sit on chairs for a Really Long Time and watch me as I cleaned it up, heh, heh.

Anyway, if counting my blessings I would say it was wonderfully fortuitous that dinner was basically done and I had the space in my afternoon to pull wads of paper out of the toilet and to wipe up oodles of water with half a dozen towels.

Those two do make an effective team, don't they?

Let's just hope we have sufficiently hidden the diaper cream: Vaseline, Mama?

And if you like stories like this, check out THIS blog.