Totally Awkward... What day is this?

So, I was thinking today was Tuesday, and I was all ready to play along with Tova Darling. Then I realized, today is Wednesday. No matter though, after being home with the kids for nearly 2 weeks straight, having Christmas, Santa, more Christmas with various relatives, I am having a hard time keeping straight what day it is and where I am supposed to be. Forgive me, however, I will regain my senses once the children go back to school. In the meantime, bear with me, I have two stories today for your reading enjoyment....

Child #4 started Kindergarten this year. He went to pre-K last year at the elementary school because he needs speech therapy, and I desperately needed to get him out of my hair...uummm... he desperately needed some structure in his day. He has what his doctor termed as the most classic case of ADHD she has ever seen. We started him on some medication, not a stimulant, but something that would take the edge off his constant fidgeting and climbing and talking and... well, the medicine has worked pretty well, but it was tricky finding just the right amount at the right times. The first week of Kindergarten was pretty rough. They have a smiley face system, in which everyone starts on a green face, if you have been warned 3 times about behavior you move to yellow and get a note home, then another 2 times and you move to red face and go to the prinicpals office. Child #4 had a note home every day that first week of school for various infractions of class rules. Then Friday came, and I was so glad that week was almost over. School gets out at 3pm and the bus delivers my children to the door around 3:45pm. At 3:30pm I got a call from the school. It was the prinicipal.
Mrs. B: Are your children home yet?
Me: No, is everything ok?
Mrs. B: Well, I wanted to talk to you about an incident that happened today.
Me: What did he do? (note here: the rest of my school age children are girls, I knew it related to Child #4)
Mrs. B: While the children were lined up to get on their respective busses or in car rider lines (and the parents were lined up in cars outside, and the busses were lined up outside), Child #4 pulled the fire alarm. We know it was him, Mrs. T watched him do it.
Me: (being totally silent and thinking WTF?!?!)
Mrs. B: We called the fire department and cancelled the call, reset the alarm, and I talked to him for a minute, but he didn't seem very sorry about it. Maybe you can explain to him how important it is not to do that unless there is a fire.
Me: Thank you.... I will certainly talk to him when he gets home. I am so sorry. He really knows better.
Of course, when the kids got off the bus, everyone wanted to be the first to tell me he had pulled the fire alarm. I sat down on the porch with him and asked him what he was thinking, we certainly know better than to pull a fire alarm when there isn't a fire, yes? And he said, "but mama, I didn't pull it.... I lifted it! I didn't know it would go off, I thought there was something inside you had to pull. Besides... I can't read! If Mrs. V (his K teacher) would have taught me to read, I would have known it said if I lifted it it would go off!" Bless his heart. This is true... we have always talked in terms of not pulling fire alarms. This one you have to lift to set it off. No wonder he didn't seem very sorry. Child #4, being literal as always, did not see things the way we did. Its a blessing and a curse. So, we revised our discussion to include not touching fire alarms unless there is a fire. And on Monday I had him go back and apologize to Mrs. B and promise to never do that again. So far.... so good.... on that at least.

In other news, I was trying to be a fun and entertaining mama (and not have the kids trash the house any more than it already is) and took my kids to the zoo on Monday. It was a pretty good time. We wandered around, the boys got to run off some energy, they played on the really huge jungle gym. We watched the monkeys swing around and walk tightropes while the boys tried to get their attention by making monkey noises and hopping around. We at lunch at the zoo restaurant. Looked at all the spiders and snakes in the reptile building. Brushed and petted every single goat in the petting zoo area. I spent 7 hours at the zoo. I was really sure the kids would be worn out. No such luck. Just me. I was worn out and the kids were pumped up. How does this happen? It just reminds me of why I don't teach school. I love kids, I think they are hilarious, but how on earth do you survive the energy? Maybe I need to take more vitamins....