I win.

Well, we survived the first day of school yesterday and my boys rode the bus home for the very first time.  I was walking around here like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs waiting on that bus to get here. 

I just knew Dev was going to absolutely hate riding the bus but guess what?  He loved it.  And that boy doesn't love much, let me tell you.  The Dracenator had apparently been under the impression that there would be assigned seating and was elated to discover that was not the case when he was allowed to freely choose his choice of seat. 

As soon as they walked through the door I started blasting them with my long list of  first day of school questions.  "How was your teacher?  Did you get to talk to your friends much?  Where did you sit on the bus?  Who did you sit with?  Did you sit near each other? What time is lunch?  Did you have p.e., drama, art or music today? What did you eat for lunch? " 

The Dracenator's response to that last question was "umm...cantaloupe and....barf." 
 Excuse me?  Did you just say "barf"? What the heck are you talking about?
"Well, it was something nasty that looked kinda like barf."

Alrighty, then.

I looked at Dev with a puzzled look on my face and he just shrugged and gave me the that I don't have a stinkin' clue what he's talking about look and said he had popcorn chicken that was pretty good but that they also had pizza and some other things.  I guess those things were what Dray was referring to. 

On the outside of Dray's blue folder, the teacher had written his name, "homework folder" and "read 15 minutes every night".  When I told him to read, he was already back to his old try to fool mom game by responding that he didn't really think his teacher meant for him to actually start that today.  "Nice try buddy but ole mom is way too experienced to fall for that one again. Now go get a book."  He came back with a flap book, Richards Scarry's Best Flap Book Ever, Sneef Saves The Day! 

Alrighty, then. 

I am not sure whether he was just that excited about going back to school today, snuck in the consumption of too much caffeine at some point in the afternoon or it was just the phase of the moon but that boy woke us from a dead sleep around 3 am to inform us that he had woken up starving to death and could not go back to sleep. 

He was told to go back to bed but of course, that wasn't gonna fly so I had to get up, fix him a bowl of goldfish and inform him that the bedside lamp, closet light and light from the muted t.v. were probably affecting his ability to go back to sleep to which he let me know real quick, he absolutely cannot sleep without them on.

Alrighty, then.

It was not a restful night but believe it or not, both boys got right out of bed when I woke them up this morning. I picked the Dracenator out some clothes but he flung back the covers to show me he was already dressed.  At least he made good use of his insomnia though his outfit of some old hand-me-down shorts of his brother's and a Smurf t- shirt did not pass the mama inspection.  He said he was sweaty anyway so did not put up a fuss when I instructed him to change. 

Tonight we have football and soccer practices which will succeed at tying up our evening from 5:30 to 8:00pm but the time between now and the arrival of the school bus around 3:30 this afternoon is mine.  Well, mine and the dirty laundry's, dirty dishes', dirty floor's, and dirty dog's who went outside this morning and came back in smelling like he just rolled around on a dead rodent, which he probably did. 

Never met a dog who could resist getting all stinked up when given the opportunity.  This is most likely my payback for taking him to the groomer's last week. He came bounding back through the door, tongue hanging out and all proud-like and jumped up beside me as if to say, "Ha! get a whiff of me!  this is what a dog is supposed to smell like!"

Once he's in the tub covered in suds though, he'll be looking up at me with those I surrender puppy dog eyes that are saying,

Alrighty, then. 

You win.

I win.