Woe is me, all summer long I was happy and free.

If you don't jump in and finish the song from the opening credits of Grease 2, you really should question whether you belong here. I can get at least three more post titles out of that song on this topic.

My kids go back to school in fifteen days. This is paralyzing news. How can it be here already? I mean, I'm ready to get in the new routine. I'm ecstatic to not be driving two hours a day every day to educate my kids. We are almost done with the clothes. Haircuts and new shoes are next weekend. I'm running on track with this handy back-to-school checklist.

The boys saw the psychologist yesterday, who says they are still doing great. Landen is very excited about the new school and Jake is nervous and excited. Landen is going to start flag football at the end of August, with games every Saturday until Halloween. (And so it begins. I now recognize the point in my childhood when my mother gave up her social life.) Jake is going to start karate around the same time. Jake really got into karate the three times he went last summer, but you may recall that Landen laid down in the floor and refused to get up, so no one went back. Landen does not have the option of returning to karate this year. Corey is wondering why I think Landen will take to football when karate, an indoor sport, was too exhausting for him. "Because I said so" seems an appropriate response here. Anyway, martial arts are a highly recommended activity for kids with ADHD. Flag football will be a highly-entertaining experience for the blog. Everybody wins.

I asked the boys the other day if they wanted to be Boy Scouts this year. Both of them responded with a "YES" that only comes from children who have been waiting their whole lives for you to ask them to do that. I was surprised, because neither of them had ever mentioned it to me. I asked them why they had not asked to be in Scouts before, because their old school had it. They responded at the same time, Jake with "no one ever asked us if we wanted to," and Landen with a more specific "because YOU did not go to the school to sign the form." I like Jake's answer better. He always fairly spreads the blame around to all his parents. Landen targets me.

I was telling co-workers yesterday a funny Landen story, funny because regardless of your stature in life, if you need telling that you've got it all wrong, Landen Allbritton will oblige you. Usually without asking.  Often unceremoiously. My co-workers, who have all known me for years, allege this may be something he picked up from ME! 

Corey is going to have to have a man-to-man with Landen before school starts. There is some sort of high turnover with Landen's friends that we did not experience with Jake, nor do Corey and I recall experiencing them ourselves at eight years old. It would seem that Landen's friends decide with some regularity that they do not care to be his friend any more. It happened repeatedly last year with several kids in his class. It happened with the friends he pledged his eternal devotion to at summer camp. We ask about a friend by name and they have shunned Landen and no longer wish to associate with him. It's very sad. I think that may be why he is excited about a new school. He did not end the school year with very many friends from his old school. 

We suspect that Landen's friends get much of the same lip treatment Landen's parents do, and probably much worse. He is not a malicious kid. He's a terrific, adorable, wickedly smart and funny kid, and therein lies the problem. If you need correcting, he absolutely cannot help but to correct you. The problem is that he's not always right. He will argue with me about whether the car he just saw was a Mazda or a Nissan. If you remind him in a restaurant that we do not play with our food at the table, he will point out to you that this is not "our" table. We've worked with him all summer on not being an interrupter. If he thinks he knows better than you, he cannot wait for you to finish your sentence to tell you so. So now his dad has to help him understand how to keep friends by NOT doing all of that really annoying shit, and then some.

Jake faces a different set of challenges. The psychologist is going to write a letter to the new school, now that they've let him in and accepted our fortune, explaining the delicacy and unpredictability of Jake's condition - the ADHD combined with the anxiety. We have some requests that we can make for the school to accommodate him: seat him at the front of the class, assign a homework buddy to help ensure he brings all his materials home, give him extra time on timed tests...We understand what we need to do at home to keep the outburts at a minimum and have him on a medicine regimen that improves his performance. We believe we will have a better spirit of cooperation with the school if we do not leave them to be surprised.

I cannot wait to post pictures of them on their first day of school in their new uniforms, which look almost exactly like the old uniforms, with a different logo and broader options for footwear. Indulge me while I share some pictures Corey had of tiny school-bound Allbrittons boys, often in uniform.

Landen to daycare, Jake to St. Theresa for Pre-K

Landen to daycare in Gonzales

Jake at the Pre-K he attended in New Orleans briefly
before the hurricane displaced them.

Landen at his Kindergarten graduation

Jake on a field trip to the museum

Thank you for allowing me to get those off my chest. That was weighing on me heavily. Oh, today is my loverly husband's birthday. He's 33, officially in his mid-thirties. I delight. He despises. If you haven't already, please flood his Facebook wall with birthday wishes. We're celebrating with poboys and chocolate cake!