School... It Kicks Your Butt.

It isn't a coincidence that I have not made a post since the kids started school. I'm exhausted and I feel like I never slow down. Geana's working, all five kids are in school full-time, and I've been getting them ready to go in the morning and putting them to bed at night by myself. I've also been extremely busy at work recently and I even do laundry during football games on Sundays. Needless to say - free time has been scarce.

This being said - I've been taking some notes of our goings on here at Casa de Morrisquads and some of the highlights from the past month are:

1. It took Robby and James about a week to figure out that the teachers at school tell them apart by the glasses on James' face. One day, in the second week of school, as I was unloading them from the van, one of their teachers said to James, "Good Morning Robby." To my astonishment Robby was wearing James' glasses and James wasn't wearing anything. Both boys has big shit-eating grins on their faces. Clearly they thought this was a RIOT! As other cars were pulling up into the car line and kissing their children goodbye - I had to quickly pull mine aside and tell them that this was not acceptable behaviour. To which James said, "Well - what if we just switch our shoes?" "Fine." You've gotta pick your battles in this house.

2. It also took about a week for me to get used to styling the girls hair. We're at the point now where I feel like I can brush their hair and not have them look like they've been on a 12 hour bender. This is a major accomplishment.

3. It's taken some adjusting for Sammy, who has been out of sorts with Mommy working all the time. He's slowly coming around and this morning he even helped me get the kids dressed. See - they wear uniforms to school everyday and today was the first day that the quadruplets had to wear sweatshirts over their collared shirts. Being a second grader, Sammy is an expert on the Saint Andrew School uniforms and was showing James how to tuck in your golf shirt first - then pull on the sweatshirt - and finally pull the collar out of the top so that it lays flat on top of the sweatshirt. This makes for enthralling reading, I'm sure, but it was super cute to look over and see Sammy being an older brother and helping out the little ones. It was one of those moments that just makes your heart melt.

4. Soccer. Let me fill you in... Saturdays have been taken up with soccer. The quads are on one team and Sammy is on another. We will sit at Hillcrest Elementary school for 3 hours or more on Saturday afternoons waiting for the games to start, watching the games, throwing football, and playing on the playground. Luckily - the weather has been phenomenal. Robby has turned into a little athlete (I think because he is very aggressive and has ZERO fear. I don't know if this is a good thing or not.) He has scored 3 goals in 2 games. I'm already looking into hotel accommodations in Oneonta, NY for the Soccer Hall of Fame induction weekend in 2045.

That's it from the Morris Family. Apparently our show aired again on The Discovery Health network last week. Check your local listings b/c if I'm not posting to the blog and you HAVE to hear about our family - you can always just watch us on TV!!!

Oh - one last thing... I was listening to this song on YouTube this morning as the kids ate breakfast. I heard Ella singing the chorus as she was getting out of the van today. We'll see what notes come home... oops!

A Fond Farewell to the School Year

We're approaching the home stretch here. The kids are done with nursery school after this morning and Sammy just has a few more days left and it's off to 2nd grade!

I was helping Sammy with his homework the other night and was enjoying an ice cold Heineken as I was helping him glue his Zack & Cody pictures onto his paper bag vest. The task was to create a vest based on the book that he just read, "Zack & Cody: The Suite Life". (It's a show on Disney but they also have several books... anyway) Geana did the lion's share the night before with him and I was simply helping with the finishing touches. You know - gluing some pictures on and putting the last minute stickers all over... the usual. It was looking good!

Let me take a minute to say - I rarely drink beer and help my children with their homework. Honest. This just happens to be one of those times where... oh... forget it... it's just not gonna come out right no matter what I say. I had about half of my beer with dinner and the bottle remained on the table after the meal so that I could finish it after cleaning up the kitchen. Sammy was also doing homework at this table.

You can probably see where this is going... in Sammy's attempt to reach for the glue, the beer bottle spilled all over his homework (narrowly missing the vest - THANK GOD - but getting all over his math assignment, school folder, and school bag). I quickly tried to clean it up but it was too late. The beer had soaked into the math paper and into the folder. I hung them both up to dry in the kitchen but nothing gets out the smell of beer. Nothing. I even tried to spray some fabreeze on them, but that just made it smell like someone spilled beer on this homework and then tried to cover it up by spraying fabreeze on it. I tried to think of something else to do but at that point the homework would become illegible if any other liquid touched the page. UGH. What's a guy to do?

Anyway - looks like my kid (in a cast) is going to have to take his homework into school and explain to his teacher that his father spilled beer all over his homework and that is why it smells the way that it does. Then the jackass tried spraying it with fabreeze. Sometimes I think it's amazing that they even let me have children.

Our Morning Routine

6:00 - Alarm goes off. I push snooze. (Let me take a minute here to say that I'm the one in charge of the alarm clock. I'm not sure how and when this happened throughout the course of our marriage but at some point it became my responsibility to make sure that the whole family is up on time. I didn't sign up for this job... nor do I claim to be very good at it.)

6:30 - Anywhere from 4 to 10 scampering feet find their way into our bed. By this point in our lives, the kids have realized that the first ones into our bed get the prime spots, i.e. cuddled up next to Mommy or Daddy. Surprisingly - they have learned that if they miss out on that spot, they fit remarkably well curled up next to our feet. We feed them biscuits when they do this.

7:00 - I finally realize that we need to get out of bed because the kids have to be at school in less than an hour and I have to leave for work in just about the same time frame.

7:01 - I yell, "FIRE!!" And the kids immediately jump out of bed and run down the steps in fear for their lives. (I don't do this everyday... just on special occasions when I really feel like messing up my kids' psyches.)

7:10 - We finally get all of the kids herded downstairs and sitting at their spots at the kitchen table. Often times there is MEGA fighting from the kids to actually sit at the table. (We make them do this every single school day - it's a wonder to me why they continue to fight us on this simple task). We make them sit at the table so that they are all in one place and we don't have to search for anyone or have a doubt in our mind that everybody has made it downstairs. We turn on the Disney Channel. Nine mornings out of ten - we give them Pop tarts. Except Ella - she doesn't like Pop tarts and demands a granola bar. On the tenth morning - we give them Toaster Strudels. They love Toaster Strudel Day.

7:15 - As the kids are eating and watching Handy Manny, I walk around one by one and get them dressed. It is a recent revelation that the girls only want to wear dresses. I'm not sure when this happened - but as long as they don't want to start dating, I'm fine with this.

7:25 - Once I'm done dressing them, I take out the hair brushing buckets (we have two buckets that contain hair gel, water sprayers, hair ties, straightener, curly stuff, mouse, brushes, bows, barrets, spiker, combs, etc.). Personally - I use three items. 1) Water Sprayer. 2) Gel. 3) Brush. I only brush the boys hair. I've recused myself from attempting to brush the girl's hair. For whatever reason, I will never succeed at making my girls hair look pretty. When I try to style it - it looks like Michael Jackson's hair on the cover of "Bad".

GEANA - BTW - While I've been doing all of this crap, Geana has been packing lunches, writing notes to teachers, backing school bags, etc. Frankly - we divide and conquer. If I was ever asked to do what she does in the morning I'd be lost. At some point Geana brushes the girl's hair but I couldn't tell you how or when.

7:35 - Time to brush teeth. This is my least favorite part of the morning. Because the kids just ate, they have all kinds of funk in their teeth. I've thought about changing up the routine to have them brush teeth first - but why mess with a process that is working? Right? If I fight with them to just sit at the table when they come down, I can't even imagine the comments from them if I were to ask them to brush their teeth first. We do this as an assembly line. Quadruplet 1 comes in - we brush: Ahhh... Eeeee.... tongue... rinse... spit. Quadruplet 2 comes in - repeat. Quadruplet 3... Quadruplet 4... Sammy... and so on... (I might also point out that I'm a horrible person... I leave the water running. I know - Mother Earth is crying. I know - I'm an inconsiderate bastard. I know all of these things and I don't care. If I were to turn the water on and off each time I had a kid come in to wet their tooth brush, rinse their toothbrush, and then again to fill their rinse cup and then again to wipe their mouth I would have to move the the facet 40 times. That would make me cry... sorry Mother Earth.)

7:45 - WE FORGOT SHOES! (This happens everyday). "Everyone put your shoes on!" I run around and try to put the shoes on each kid now that they've vacated the table. This is not an easy task but somehow we manage to find enough shoes for five kids every morning. They may not match the outfit - but they match each other. That's all that counts.

7:55 - I push them all out the door after I hug and kiss each one. Geana loads them into the van and off they go.

8:00 - I get ready for work.

8:10 - I leave for work.

Like I said - I shouldn't be in charge of when we wake up because clearly I should get ready before I get the kids ready, right? Wrong. You try brushing teeth, feeding kids, brushing hair, dressing kids, hugging kids - all without getting anything on your suit or shirt. It isn't an easy task. Hence - they get ready before I do. (We still could get up earlier.)

Back To School... and Other Stuff

We headed back to school a couple of weeks ago and nobody has died... yet.


In some ways, the kids going back to school is great. You know - they are growing up, they are out of the house, they are investing in their future. Blah blah blah... However - while starting school we have, occasionally, come across issues that seemed insurmountable. We came across things that, at first, were potentially catastrophic and could cause the earth (our portion of it) to spin out of control. But as all things in life - these issues seem to resolve themselves as time moves on. Issues like, "What am I supposed to do when I'm sitting in class and I have to go pee - and I'm wearing this new fangled belt?!?" (You'll be glad to know that we've now navigated the belt after a month's worth of practice and can actually get to the potty, unbuckle, unsnap, unip, pull down, and pee in record time - if necessary. We try not to show off.)

You see - life goes on. As you embark on new journeys and portions of your life, it only takes one potential leak in your pants to create the determination needed to master getting that belt off, unzipping... all of it. You roll with the punches and learn how to dodge and weave to make life easier to swallow.

Goooood Morning Morrisquads!!

We had an incredible morning today because we got up REALLY late. To add to the pressure, I had a 9:15am meeting that I COULD NOT BE LATE FOR! This is our morning:


We woke up late and it was COMPLETELY my fault. I've found myself really enjoying the early morning recently so I've been attempting to get up at around 5:30 or 6:00, have a cup of coffee and read the news, blogs, sports, etc. before getting the kids up and ready. Not this morning...

5:15am - the alarm goes off, I turn it off, and wasn't the wiser until approx. 7:09:59.

7:10am - PANIC!! Turn to Geana and tell her - "HOLY CRAP - It's 7:10!" I jump in the shower and am out in two minutes flat. I get dressed and promptly grab Sammy out of bed. I go downstairs and get breakfast ready (poptarts and nutrigrain bars) and realize that Sammy's clothes were never switched. I put them in the dryer. Geana is getting clothes together for the kids to wear.

7:20am - Geana brings down the kids and their clothes. While they eat, I finish getting myself ready for work. When they are about 1/2 way done with their food I start dressing them. They WILL NOT get dressed while they still have food to eat... who knew? They threw a fit! I think that the problem is - if you take one kid away from the table to get dressed, there is the potential for another sibling to steal that one's pop tart/nutri-grain bar or milk. Needless to say - the kids don't like to get dressed until they are DONE. Too bad for them - Desperate times = Desperate measures. Geana makes snacks/lunch and packs school bags while I get them dressed. The other kids eat while I dress them one by one by one by one (shoes & socks included). We are the "Multi-Tasking Morris's"

7:32am - Kids are dressed and are are finishing gobbling up their food. Sammy is not dressed, yet. I go downstairs and get his uniform out of the dryer (damp but wearable), bring it up and give it to him to get dressed by himself. I yell at the kids to go back to the table. They sit. I go around in a circle - spraying little heads with water, accompanied with hair gel and a brush. By the time I get around the table, Sammy is done getting dressed. I give him the bottle, gel, and brush for him to do his own hair. The quads follow me into the bathroom to brush their teeth.

7:45am - James - "Ahh... Eeee... spit... rinse." Anna - "Ahh... Eeee... spit... rinse." Robby - "Ahh... Eeee... spit... rinse." Ella - "Ahh... Eeee... spit... rinse." Sammy comes in and I leave him to his own teeth brushing skills.

7:49am - Coats on the quads.

7:51am - Coat on Sammy.

7:52am - Head out the door and into the van (in the rain).

7:57am - Everyone is buckled and ready to go. I run inside - get my work bag, ipod, wallet & keys - throw on a coat, run back to the car... and we're off!

8:02am - Arrive at St. Andrew's School.

Whew!

Moving Day

No - we didn't move. I had several "moving" moments yesterday where I said to myself, "I have to blog about this." Hence the words below...

The first moving moment of the day yesterday was having the unique perspective of looking down on the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Center City as officer Cassidy's viewing/funeral was happening. My building looks right over the Cathedral and, let me tell you, you have not seen anything as awe inspiring as 800+ police officers, all dressed in uniform, paying their respects to one of their fallen brothers. I'm not one who usually gets worked up over spectacles like yesterday's but it was incredibly moving and one of those unbelievable moments that you just file away in your memory forever.

The second moving moment of the day yesterday was my trip to Sammy's Kindergarten classroom to be the "Mystery Reader." After my Dr. appointment (not a moving moment) I headed over to St. Andrew's School to read "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs." The kids seemed to like the book a lot. I was nervous... really nervous. I'm not sure why. There was something cool about watching the kids faces and answering all of their questions about the book. Throughout the reading I was asked questions like, "What is that?" about an upright bass one of the people was carrying. And one kid asked why the garbage trucks had to use forks and knives to clean the streets... a legitimate question by the young lad - the obvious answer is because it was raining food! The best question came at the very end of the book and it wasn't even a question. One of the kids said, "Look there is an S." I wasn't sure where he was pointing because he was simply looking at a picture of a hill of snow on the last page. I couldn't find it - so I had him show me. "It's right there!" he sternly told me. He was pointing to a line on the picture that was there to give depth in the illustration from one hill to another, but when you looked at it from another perspective it was very much an S. Well at this point all of the kids rushed the stage and had to see the S. See - S was one of the letters they've been learning about.

Watching the kids be so excited about the new stuff they are learning was very encouraging to me. Clearly they are having fun learning about this Alphabet thing.

Sammy got to sit in the rocking chair right next to mine and help me read the story to the class. Talk about a fun time! He was definitely surprised that I was the "Mystery Reader" and wasn't expecting it at all. Sometimes it is easy to forget how full children can make your life. Their bright eyes and their inquisitive minds are something to be held onto, also to be filed away in that space in your memory forever.

Having had come from just seeing the site of Officer Cassidy's funeral - I took the minute to give Sammy an extra squeeze before I left.

South to drop off, Moron

I drove Sammy to school today (usually Geana's job) and I accidentally came down the drop off street the wrong way. Let me tell you - people were really upset. Like, way more than they should have been. I understand I did it wrong but it was an honest mistake. Mind you - I didn't do anything illegal. Let me explain...

The street where the school is located is a two-way street, with cars going in either direction. Not a busy street, but on school mornings, significantly congested. I just happened to pull up with the school on my left, not on my right like you're supposed to. I was getting dirty looks from minivan to minivan to minivan, and one woman actually screamed at me incoherently. I was doing what any logical, well thinking parent would do and strategically pulled up to the school with my child's door closest to the curb. This way he wouldn't have to get out in traffic and then walk around the car. I particularly wouldn't want him to have to do that with all of these lunatic moms beeping their horns at his father. I pulled up with the curb on the left hand side of the car, facing the wrong way, and in doing so apparently cut in front of about 10 other cars (9 of them minivans) that were patiently waiting to drop their children off, who came up the street in the conventional manner. Yo - oops!

What complicates matters is that today is Halloween, so all of the children are taking their costumes, cookies, candy, etc. to school as well as their school materials because today is the big Halloween party that is happening at noon in the school yard. So instead of dealing with a couple of half asleep mom's who are doing their normal routine - I was dealing with a bunch of aggravated mom's who were running late because they had to get a million extra things ready this morning and had to scream at their kids to get them out the door for school and had no help from their husbands. That last line is key - at least I'm doing my part... albeit incorrectly.

L-E-T-T-E-R-S to the kids.

I've been reading a lot of "Daddy" blogs recently and I have to say - I've been inspired! Something clicked in my head as I was reading some of these blogs which makes a lot of sense to me - BB&B will eventually be an archive of words and experiences and thoughts that my kids can read at an older age. Imagine that - at 18 years old, a door is opened into your past containing words, comments, and letters from your Dad for almost your entire existence. That seems pretty cool to me.

One particular post by Baby Daddy was particularly inspiring to me and has made me decide to add a weekly "Letter to the Kids" on Fridays. My plan is to write a letter to one of the kids each Friday. I'll plan to rotate kids, but I want this letter to be to a single child, rather than to the group. The individual time that I get to spend with each one is pretty important to me (and them), so I'd like to make this an individual thing, rather than a group thing. Anyway - here's the first letter...

Dear James,

You started school the other day, buddy! I'm so proud of you. You have no idea what it is like to come home from work and hear you talk about Mrs. Tomasetti and Mrs. Brown without me even asking. It's awesome! I'm extra proud of you because I see how much you love going to school, and how much you look forward to it since you've set foot in the classroom on the orientation day. Your little eyes light up like Christmas bulbs (the big ones, not the small ones) and your words move at a mile a minute when you talk about your first two days. Keep it up, man. School can be lots of fun but eventually it will become work, too. My advice - master the fun stuff 'cause it's not gonna last forever. Paint the bear, investigate the toy kitchen, kick the ball... there is always time for work later. I'm proud of you, kiddo! I love you.

Love,

Daddy

Even Kindergarten is Tough

I think Sammy's having a tough time with school. He's been complaining about his belly hurting for the past week and he's woken up in the middle of the night for the past three nights. This is extremely bizarre because he's always been that happy go lucky kid who loves everything and everyone around him. It's tough when you are a parent and you feel so helpless. I've felt helpless before with the kids (the first time I held them), but never to this extent. I wish there was something that this Wise Old Father could do or say that would snap him out of it but really - I'm just dumbfounded.

We have some ideas about why he may be upset, but we don't really know for sure. It may be the transition to Kindergarten, or because his best friend has gone to another school, but we tend to think that he is getting picked on by several of the kids in the class. He keeps talking about a couple of the kids in his class and how he doesn't like them. We have not told the teacher yet but that's probably the next step. Sometimes - Robby and James gang up on him at home and he has always had an issue with people pushing him around or putting him down (who doesn't?). He won't share what's going on at school with us, though, so we don't really know. We're also trying to NOT push him too hard to tell us in hopes that he'll open up on his own. Who knows the right approach...

I think that I feel so much more helpless this time because I sympathize with him so closely. I mean - I'm only one year removed from being sick every morning because I hated going to my job. My solution was simple - find another job... but he doesn't have that option. I remember being a kid and getting my ears flicked because they stuck so far out from my head. I remember how cruel kids can be at a very young age. I'm sure that there were kids that took more shit than I, but to this day I don't deal well with confrontation or with bullies.

It's sad to watch him go through this. Right now - all I can give is love. He's a strong kid and this to shall pass, I'm sure. I don't know what I would have done at 2 years old if, all of a sudden, I had 4 little brothers and sisters to deal with.

1st Day of School

Another monumental day here at the Morris household. Today was the quads first day of nursery school. One moment from this morning
sticks out in my mind above all others. It's sad in a way... and every parent was guilty. The moment that sticks out was the moment when all of the children had gone into the school, hung up their coats and bags, migrated into the class room and sat down. At that point, the parents were forced to leave and go back out to the school yard... alone... not knowing what to do with themselves... I took a quick glance around to the other mom's and dad's and all of them had the same sad, longing for the past, look in their eyes. Perhaps they were thinking of their kid's first steps, or maybe when their little one said, "Daddy" for the first time. I'm not sure, but we all had the same look. It seemed to say, "Man - our kids have grown up. What do we do now?"

Don't get me wrong - this is a moment to be enjoyed by everyone but it also is a crossroads in our little one's lives. (It seems like we come across these crossroads on a weekly basis at this age, doesn't it?) Anna and Ella were visibly nervous as they ventured into Mrs. Tommasetti's classroom. Robby and James, as expected, just barged right in without an ounce of fear. But I think that Sammy had the toughest morning of all. He seemed to be pretty upset because school had always been HIS thing and now the quads were getting to share in this special aspect of life. It's ironic in a way - they always seem to find a way to take his stuff, and now they were taking this, too.

But have no fear - Moms and Dads, brothers and sisters - we will all get over this school thing and in 15 short years we'll be saying the same thing that we did today as we pack up to head for college. Where did the time go? Can you believe that they are so grown up? Do you remember that first day of school in Mrs. Tommasetti's classroom at St. Andrew's School? Savor these moments... every single one.