Bye Bye Summer Slothitude

So the boys started school Thursday of last week. I officially have a 2nd grader and a kindergartner. We were pleased with both the boys' teacher assignments. Little J got the same kindergarten teacher that Big J had, and Big J got the only 2nd grade teacher I remember meeting before and I really liked her.

Here is a synopsis of their first day:

Little J liked it and thought his new light up Spiderman shoes and Spiderman backpack were the bomb. His class is too big right now (a concern the principal heard about from me and other moms), but they are adding another section, so it should go back down to a more manageable size. His only complaint (and I quote): "There are so many dumb rules! There are rules about everything. There's only like one thing that there's not a rule about. It's soooooo dumb!!!!" That statement pretty much sums up my second child's personality.

Big J's synopsis of his first day can be summed up in two words: guinnea pigs. They have two pet guinnea pigs, Mocha and Snickers, in their classroom, and I got to hear the life history of both of them. That and how they sniff each other's butts when they let them play together. Big J is growing up! *sniff sniff* All the comments from people who hadn't seen him over the summer were about how tall he is. He is also into fixing his hair this year (see picture below). When I took him to get new tennis shoes he insisted on getting the tie kind, not velcro. AND he went from a size 2.5 to a 4!!!! Holy huge foot.

In other news...

The Friday before last we went to the Royals game with a big group of people and it was a really fun atmosphere. Because we had a group of 20, we got the $13 seats for $8, and it was buck night so all the hot dogs and drinks were just a $1, AND there was a great firework show at the end. But the highlight had to be when all of us got up on the big screen. We had been trying to get them to pan up to us, and so my friend Heather and Little J turned around and started shaking their booties during one of the songs. That must have caught the camera's attention! Big J and his friend that came along and Heather were up the longest, but I enjoyed my .009 seconds of fame, too.

I ran in a 5k Saturday morning and actually placed second in my age division! My goal was to beat the geriatric patients that I was pretty much keeping pace with the whole time. Seriously - they were like 70 and almost kicked my butt. It was a really nice run I enjoyed, even with the 3 short but steep hills right at the beginning. Overall, I came in 141/283, and 2/22 in my age division for females.

Little Man has been expanding his vocabulary by leaps and bounds as of late. He has always had the comprehension of what words are, for example, if you ask him to do something or to point to his arm or anything like that, he knows what's up, but he has been how Little J was and not prone to actually speaking a lot. But lately he has added a lot more random words.

"Bye bye" is a new one, but he says it like "die die." He also says "nine!" for "mine!" His multi-purpose word is "high." It means "lift me up" or "I can't reach that." And we have Dada, Mama, and "Mom" which refers to everyone else. His favorite phrase is, "Here you go." He'll also bust out with "Mama bye bye car, " or other words strung together every once in a while.

But the best has to be the occasional words he'll say that shows me he's just holding back. For example, the other day he came to get me and kept saying something that I couldn't quite understand because it was out of context. Then he points behind the piano and I see a Spongebob ball behind there that he couldn't get. The word he was saying? "Spongebob!"

He is definitely going to be the ham of the family. He loves to mug for the camera. He thinks he's so funny when he pretends to burp and then busts out laughing about it. He will play games with us like point to something and say, "Car?" in this teasing voice, and we'll go, "No, that's not a car. That's a ____." Then he'll go, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhh!" all dramatic like he didn't know that. He's a pretty funny kid:

Well, it's time to get crackin'. School's in, flag football is about to start up, Big J will be starting Scouts soon, etc. etc. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for the fact that every afternoon now I will have a few hours of solitude while Little J is at kindergarten and Little Man is taking a nap. What to do? What to do?