I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

I know I've been slacking in the blogging dept.; I keep saying to myself that I need to sit down to blog. I even wrote it in my planner - "blog!" Today 2 people reminded me that I was doing some major blog slacking. My sister-in-law emailed me to say that I was not keeping her up to date with the kids' "goings-on" and then "Anonymous" commented along the same lines - could they both be Joelle? Who knows. At any rate, I'm back and full of stories.

School has been going pretty well. Gavin loves kindergarten. He runs in every morning and half the time doesn't even stop to kiss and hug his daddy. I was off this past Monday and brought the kids to school. Gavin started to run in and only when I yelled "Hey where's my kiss" did he turn around and come back to give me one. Gavin has discovered the joys of buying lunch at school. Francesca will only buy lunch on pizza day (Fridays) and "Brunch for Lunch" days, when they offer French Toast sticks with either sausage, ham or bacon. Gavin is more adventurous and has sampled not only pizza and hamburgers, but the cafeteria delicacy "rotini with meat sauce" - yesterday's lunch - but is not sure why the cafeteria ladies choose to serve green beans with the rotini. He did enjoy the side of Italian bread though.

Gavin comes home full of stories and details about school - who was bad, who was good, who he played with on the playground. His teacher told us at Back to School night that he tells her every morning what is going on in his life since he last saw her the day before. Uh oh, Scott and I thought, we'd better watch what we do and say at home; he's liable to tell her EVERYTHING that goes on at home! Gavin was also lucky enough to be chosen "Singer of the Week" one week by the music teacher. We found this incredibly funny since we can't remember the last time we heard Gavin sing anything. He claims to have sung "Humpty Dumpty" at school.

Francesca likes 1st grade. She just is not as enthusiastic in the mornings. Poor Scott. He has to deal with her and her moods in the mornings. Last week I tried to make the mornings a bit easier. Francesca and I sat down on Sunday night and picked out a week's worth of outfits, based on the Weather Channel's predictions and when she has gym and has to wear sneakers. Everything was examined and tried on, and accesories and shoes were picked. Then we actually wrote it all down on an index card so there was no confusion about what she was wearing on a particular day. The only problem we had was with her socks. She always complains about her socks. "Bumps in my socks" is what she tells her father. This infuriates Scott. Especially when she starts this crap as she is exiting the car in front of school. A few mornings I have called Scott at work to see how drop-off was and he is still exasperated over our daughter's sock issues. Aside from her potential wardrobe malfunctions she is doing fine.

It is nice to have them both at the same school but sometimes I think they don't like sharing the school with each other. Francesca has a year up on Gavin so she thinks she is a bit "cooler". Gavin has an "I-don't-really-care-what-you-think" attitude and ignores his sister on the playground. I picked them up from the after-school program one day and Gavin told me that his sister "tackled" him:

GAVIN: "Mommy, Checka attacked me on the playground. She tried to tackle me and her friend helped! That wasn't nice."

ME: "Francesca, why did you tackle your brother?"

FRANCESCA: "I wanted to say hello to him and he would not say hello to me. I was just holding on to the back of his collar so he would stop and say hi!"

GAVIN: "Mommy, I DID NOT WANT TO TALK TO MY SISTER. I told her to leave me alone and she would not!"

School is good.