...at least that is where I feel like I live, with me as the house mother (aka: “mean rule-maker”)... of all FOUR young men! Now it is not only Legos strewn about the floors of our house, but also iPods, hot glue guns, grinders, wood burning tools and suspicious smelling clothing. It is only a matter of time before we have the firefighters visiting us -- in a professional capacity that is, and not as friends of Toby! (*Please note that I did not begin this letter with a reference to our perpetual house construction...THAT subject gets a pass this year.)
Jensen is now in kindergarten and loving every minute. It is not a sure bet that his teacher feels the same way though. It has been mentioned to his parents he is “very comfortable playing with the things on the teacher’s desk and rearranging the calendar." This may not have been such a big problem if he actually knew how to put the numbers back in order! Poor Mrs. Elmer... this is her third McDonell boy to have in her class. She also asked how it is possible that each subsequent child of ours is louder than the last?? As for how we are faring with our “baby” off to elementary school... instead of getting teary on the first day of school with the other sentimental Kinder parents, all we could say was, “YEAH! Free school!” Sadly though, all that preschool money we were going to be saving has been simply redirected to the orthodontist. After looking at the state of Bailey and Riley’s mouths and spying Jensen in the waiting room, her comment was, “We are going to be seeing each other for a long time!” Oh, joy. They will not be able to go to college, but they will have great teeth!
Riley is now a third grader and even more a clone of Toby than he was last year (scary!) with one extreme exception: his immense head of hair. He is not a fan of short hair but unfortunately, instead of growing long, his hair grows taller and curlier! (Toby is tempted to snip a little off the top while he sleeps and make a full wig for himself.) Soccer is still his sport of choice but his HILARIOUS comedic monologues are what we look forward to each day. (It is best if only close family and friends hear them as they are, of course, mostly "inappropriate” ...yet really funny!)
Bailey is in sixth grade and has entered the delightful limboland of adolescence, a pretty bewildering place for anyone in the near vicinity. I am fairly certain that we all will be riddled with emotional and mental scars at the end (please let that be soon)! He is a study on "extremes." One moment Bailey is incredibly independent, loving, wickedly witty, and plays lacrosse with a single-minded focus. Conversely, he can flip his mental switch and instantly be completely outraged by our apparent parental “lameness” and our utter audacity to ask him to do a simple task that he has been doing for years as a member of our family. The one thing I was sure we could look forward to when he became a teenager was having a free babysitter. In reality, we still have to hire a sitter who functions more like a hostage negotiator for the younger boys.
Toby was promoted to Fire Captain in February and is now in charge of maintaining TWO houses: one of the fire variety up at the Stanford Linear Accelerator, and ours, which seems to have one “boy-made” crisis after another befall it. He has taken up painting again and has requested to have locking steel doors with an electronic shock system to “encourage” his sons to respect his personal space and work area.
As for me, I still love teaching those sixth graders, but there is a twist this year: Bailey is in one of my history classes! It is actually really nice most of the time, and I always know who it is when I hear, “Mom?” from the sea of kids in front of me. However, we do have a slight difference of opinion on what constitutes adequate effort in regard to work ethics. Occasionally during one of our “discussions”, Toby will refer to us as “two 3-year olds fighting over a toy”.... but I OWN the toys, so "HA!" I do still volunteer in Riley and Jensen’s classes which is a little less contentious for both Mom and child!
We hope that the coming year provides your family with the adventure and “entertainment” that ours is sure to provide in 2012! Until next year, when my family life will SURELY return to perfection....
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