First Day of School!!

Also known as Mother's Day at my house. I do love them, but I was pretty excited to send the boys off for the day. That's what happens when they've spent the last 8 weeks or so bothering each other and Tabitha, whilst SCREEEEEECHING at the top of their lungs. I was done. They can't go outside or they'll get heat stroke, unless they're swimming, but there's only so much swimming that can be done in a week. Thus, Mother's Day.
Daxton entered second grade with Mrs. Hancock and Grady started Kindergarten with Mrs. Neal (formerly Ms. Smoot who was Daxton's Kindergarten teacher). We started the day off with a big breakfast (as befits every Mother's Day) of Monkey Bread and Milk. That's big because we usually just have cereal and this required planning.


Brandon joined us in our walk to the bus to wish the boys a good first day.




Tabitha was so excited to say Hi to all of her friends that she missed over the summer. We couldn't get her to pay attention to the camera.



The bus driver foiled our plans of having Daxton sit next to Grady on the bus. He separated all the kids by grade, which I guess is okay. At least I knew Grady wasn't going to sit next to a sixth grader who would push him off the seat and swear at him.


Grady climbed the big steps into the bus and then waved as they drove away. He was ready to have the most perfect first day of Kindergarten...

Except that he didn't. I thought about the boys periodically through the day, but mostly I was just enjoying the QUIET. I wondered how Grady was doing and I was secretly fantasizing that his teacher would send home a special note saying how wonderful and angelic he is. That was SOOOO not the case. Instead, Brandon got a phone call from her after school got out. She'd tried to call the house, and my cell, but I was otherwise occupied I guess. She explained that Grady had a horrible day. He behaved horribly enough that it warranted a phone call to us. He was constantly talking, and very disrespectful with mimicing her and such. She explained to Brandon that she's never (in her 8 years teaching) called a parent after the first day of school, but she called us!
I totally did not expect this of Grady. Although he is headstrong and gets frustrated easily, he is my most loving kid and he's the one that tries to please us the most.
Of course Brandon told Mrs. Neal that we'd handle it and she was grateful for our support. I think she felt comfortable calling us after only the first day because she knows us and knows that we'd want to be told if our child was acting out. I'm really glad that's the case.
When Grady got off the bus (dripping with sweat and lobster faced because the bus had NO AIR CONDITIONING and it was 115 degrees), I loaded the boys into the nice, cool car and asked Grady, very enthusiastically because I didn't yet know how wrong the day went, "How did it go!" He scowled at me and said, "Mom, I DON'T want to talk about it." I kind of smiled because what he said was cute, and I was thinking it couldn't have been that bad. I tried to pull some information from him, but he just told me he got in trouble.
As they were eating their cookies and milk for their afterschool snack, the phone rang. I happened to look at Grady as I answered it and he looked scared. Apparently Mrs. Neal had told him she was going to call us. It was Brandon on the phone and he'd just finished speaking to Mrs. Neal.
We spoke to Grady several times about his behavior and how he could change it for the next day. We also did Father's Blessings for Family Home Evening and told Grady that Heavenly Father could help him to make better choices and to choose the right while he's at school. He seemed ready to go back to school and try again. When he said his prayers before bed he asked for help in making better choices. Of course, we told him what the consequences would be if he had another bad day. He would lose the TV, and the Wii for a week. There was just about NO way he was going to let that happen.
Today (day 2) I went in for his lunch to check on him and have a chat with Mrs. Neal to find out if the day was going any better. She told me that it's like he is a different kid. He had a wonderful morning and he was the kid she was expecting he would be when she requested him as one of her students. I'm sure that yesterday she was REALLY regretting that decision. I told Grady I was proud of him for making better choices, and asked his teacher to send me a note in his backpack to let me know how the rest of the day went. He walked in the door after school and handed me a note that said, GREAT (underlined twice) Afternoon, and signed by his teacher. THAT is the note I expected to get yesterday. He told me that the spirit helped him today.
So, Grady didn't have such a great first day of school, but he had a great second day and we'll just focus on that.
It took me about 4 hours after they got home to remember to ask Daxton how his day went. It was "fine" of course. He's an old pro.