Doozy of a Day

8:29 in the evening is finally here, and let me just say, it couldn't have come fast enough today!

The day started around 7:30, I was still half asleep but aware that Grayson was up, moving around downstairs. When I heard the front door open I was all the way awake and halfway out the door before I realized I didn't have any pants on, I ran back and fetched a blanket to wrap around my waist (I don't think any of my neighbors were out, thankfully) and went looking for Grayson. I found him, fully dressed for school, back pack on, in the car looking for his new socks. I explained to him that there were 4 more hours until Kindergarten and would he please come back inside so Mama can quit embarrassing herself by wearing a blanket on the driveway. Little did I know that would be the first of a long string of foot-in-mouth-shake-your-head-what-was-I-thinking moments.

Once inside I noticed Grayson had a pickle jar in the side pocket of his backpack. Now this isn't just any pickle jar, this jar contained 4 wooly bugger caterpillars for show and tell. We brought them home from Polly last weekend and he has been so excited to take them to class. I reminded him to be careful with the jar and make sure his backpack was standing up so the bugs wouldn't get too jostled around.

11:30 finally came and I took Grayson to school. We got there like 2 minutes before he was supposed to go in, so instead of unloading all 3 kids to just turn around and put 2 of them back in carseats I parked and Grayson got out to visit his friends, the first thing he did when he saw them was take the jar out of his backpack. I waited in the car for the teacher to come out and get the class, when she came out there was the usual hubbub of 5 year olds flitting about to line up. Somewhere in the chaos Grayson tripped and dropped the pickle jar, it shattered, the mom's that were outside looked around like "who's kid is this?". I jumped out of the car and ran to help Grayson. The look on his face broke my heart, I told him it was okay and that I would make sure caterpillars got to his class for share. Thank goodness for the sweet Kindergarten Moms, they jumped into action, keeping the freed caterpillars from making their beeline to the grass, one grabbed a broom and one brought a container to put the bugs in. All I could do was think "who's idea was it to send her kid to school with a GLASS jar???" We got the mess picked up and one of the Mama's delivered the caterpillars in their new home (a plastic berry container) to the class.

At pick-up this afternoon I was still feeling a bit silly for this morning's events. I was waiting for Grayson in the pick-up area when one of the Mom's from his class walked up (coincidentally the one who helped the most during the fiasco at drop-off). I had spoken to her at drop off once before and we bonded over the fact all 3 of our kids are the same age and Grayson and her son are the only one the other can remember from class. I noticed she didn't have her little kids with her and tried to ask where they were. Instead of just saying that I ended up with my foot in my mouth and her probably wanting to cancel the playdate we spoke of having before it is even on the calendar.
Me: So is your husband home with your other kids?
Her: Looks at me funny
Me: Does he work from home?
Her: No, he works at an office, the kids are at daycare
Me: Oh, Do you have a job? (like I have NEVER heard of a mother of 3 being employed)
Her: Yes, I work 2 days a week at .....
Me: (not really sure what I said because I was too busy thinking about what an idiot I sounded like 2 seconds before)
Her: Oh look, here are the kids... Bye~!

I went to greet G who was carrying the berry container of bugs. When I saw his teacher she asked if there had been 3 caterpillars or 4. I told her I thought there were 4, she said there were only 3 now because one had escaped from one of the holes around the bottom of the container, she had put tape around the holes to keep the others in. She also told me that if she found the missing caterpillar, she would return it to us. I assured her that we didn't need it back and she could just set it free, but told her that if she wanted to keep these in class she was more than welcome to. She gave me a bit of a "are you crazy, lady?" look and politely nodded, I quickly added that if they were too much of a distraction we could just take them home... let me know! I just hope the poor girl isn't squeamish when it comes to bugs since there is a fuzzy catterpillar loose in her classroom.

So apparently Graysons second week of kindergarten is turning into my first week of Middle School where I cannot properly form sentences let alone make sense when dealing with my peers. When I related it to Dusty his theory was "that is what happens when you spend all your time at home with kids, you forget how to have an adult conversation." He pretty much summed it up.