Our School Morning Ritual

At dinner last night, hubby asked me how it went when I dropped off the boys in the morning.  He hadn't asked us that yet.

He knows me.  He knows I have routine.

Even if our routine runs a little late.

I glanced at S1, who giggled a little, took a deep breath and began.....

Once we get to school, we must hurry to the crossing guard.  If it's the one teacher, S4 begins to giggle and saunter importantly.  He knows what she is going to do. When we are in talking distance, she calls out to S4 "Hey there, Troy" in her best southern Swamp People accent.  He responds with some sort of "I'm gonna get you!" And they do this whole alligator and "choot 'em" routine.

It's our daily school greeting.

If we see that Austin and Blake are about to be dropped off, we must run to get right in front of them.  If we make it in front of them, we must shake our booties and sing "We beat you! We beat you! We really really beat you!"

At this point S2 takes off like a flash for his classroom.

S1 is the first drop off.  His locker is directly in front of the front door.  The teachers there to greet us all wait with baited breath to hear what is for dinner.  

See, S1 didn't hug me when I dropped him off the first week of school.  Call me a sad mom, because I was, I came up with the ingenious idea that if he wanted to know what was for dinner, he had to hug me.  At first it was a sorta shoulder pat thing, but now it's a game and we play it well.

He hugs me, I tell him what's for dinner.

And then usually the teachers nod and agree that sounds good.  Sometimes they ask if they can show up.

I don't think they realize just how welcome they'd be.  I'd love to have any of them over to visit.

Then you hear me say, "Okay, hug your brother."

S3 and S4 jump on him, hang on him, try to climb him like a tree.

Then you hear me say, "Get off your brother! Let him go! Come on, we're late. Really, let him go!"

Every. Single. Morning.

We then drop off S4's backpack, drop his lunch off in his classroom where he teases his teacher he has nothing but bricks to eat (he says this every day he has cold lunch), puts his name under his lunch choice and we are off to the bathroom.

I stand outside the bathroom listening to too many little boys not pee and not wash their hands and I try not to be the mean mom and tell them to behave and try not to feel weird that I am standing outside a boys bathroom.

S3 is no company to me at the point.

S4 comes out of the bathroom waving his hands up and down like he is about to take flight.  Mrs. J told the class she doesn't like the hand dryers (I can totally agree with this) so he flaps his hands dry.

If Blake is at his locker because we are late, he waves his hands in victory and tries to sing our song "We beat you! We beat you! We really really beat you!"

S3 and S4 then have to hug Blake.

If I happen to see Nick, I say, "High five, Nick!"

He always high fives me - I'm the one who helps out at the coolest place ever (the library) after all.  And he is so kind to high five me even though it is sooooooo old school.

We then drop S3 off to class, it's a group effort to get his coat hung up, his back pack hung up, his folder in hand and his lunch in the tote.  Seriously, it's a project.  Because the whole time he is chatting with boy I don't know who fills us in on all the overnight sports scores.

The boy knows every teams score.  It's amazing.

Then S4 and I drop S3 off at his class.  If we stand at the door he forgets us so we just head off to S2's classroom.

S4 sticks his head into the room and S2 heads out of the class room and Jake always tags along.  I give S2 a side arm hug and let him know what's for dinner and if he is a pick up or bus ride home.  S3 then shows up for the hugs.  S3 and S4 hug S2.  We chat with Jake about what he is having for dinner, and sometimes two or three of S2's friends head out to chat with us but I am always afraid I am going to get them all in trouble.

I try to pat Jake's head as he walks back into class.

We then walk past Mrs. V's room just in case we can wave hello.

We give hugs to S3.  But it's S3.  He has to kiss us too.

I then sorta shove him into class because class for him has always started by this point.

If any brother forgets to hug S4, we must retrace our steps immediately.  S4 will fall into hyperventilating tears if he cannot hug his brothers goodbye.

Yes, the same brothers he fought with all morning and will see all during the day at school.

On the way back to S4"s classroom we come across Miss Mandy - the bus driver, the could be future mother in law of S4 - and wave hello greetings.  S4 usually chats the whole time with me about how the drop off went or the dinner work I should do or what Aunt Alicia and I should do at the library.

This is also the time that he can come up with some sort of serious illness - like a sore finger or some other sort of tragedy like painful socks.

At his classroom door I give him a big hug and sometimes a kiss on the cheek.  Sometimes he struts right into class, sometimes he needs three hugs and shove into the classroom.

I hurry on out of school now - it's anywhere from five to ten minutes past eight now, and school starts at eight - and I try to wave a cheery hello to all the great ladies in the office.  They are such dears.

Then I am out of the school.

And ready for more coffee.

When I finished the morning routine, Hubby was stunned silent.  "Huh" was all he finally said.

I didn't even tell him about the all the other friends we have to wave to our call out greeting to every morning.  Sometimes we even have to swap books, soup and such.

Pretty sure Hubs finds me crazy.