First Day of School.

Yes, it was that monumental event in the life of both a child and a parent yesterday. Andrew went to school. I was so nervous and anxious and excited that when Aaron woke up at 3am, I never went back to sleep. I heard Andrew get up quietly at about 4:30, and instead of coming in to snuggle, he went to play quietly in the living room. After a pretty normal morning, including some lovely french toast with blueberries (got to get that protein and brain food into my boy), we were all ready to go. What with his spare pants and school shoes and glue and scissors and snack and water bottle, his back pack was so heavy that he could hardly lift it. He was in good spirits and being silly. He kept falling over while I was trying to take a "first day of school" photo.


It was funny walking to school with him. As a former teacher and education addict, I love the first day of school. I was a bit sad that I wasn't saying good morning to a new class of students today as I watched all the teachers hurrying to their classrooms. In any case, it was also funny because everyone had their fresh, first day of school clothes and haircuts and faces.

By the time we waited in the playground, sitting on the barrier to the equipment together watching the other kids play, and got our shoes off and out bag in our locker (what with all the snow clothes in the winter, they have lockers from Kindergarten up), and got everything put away in our room, he wasn't so sure:

But he sat down on the carpet as his teacher had requested, and seeing as he was settled, I left, a little teary eyed. All the moms I knew from playschool who were dropping off second and third children gave me a hug and told me it would be okay. And home I went to play with Aaron.

Aaron quickly realized some of the advantages of being the only kid at home:

We also went to the park and played with the babysitting kids down the road that go there every day, and waited at the school playground for Andrew to get out for lunch. Aaron had fun, but by the end of the day he was ready to see his brother:

Andrew was too excited and full of stories to play with his brother (and a little jealous that Aaron got to stay with Mom all day long), but definitely feeling better about school:


He loved his first day. He got to try the computers and do a treasure hunt around the school and see a puppet that "came alive"(he swore) and they got Oreo cookies. He didn't particularly like gym time (no surprise - he doesn't tend to do well with organized kids games or echo-y rooms), but other than that he had a great time and was excited that one of his three friends from playschool was in his class.

I was so relieved that everything went well and he seemed to be really happily settled in his class and liked his teacher a lot. He came home and sat on the couch and finished his snack and told us all about it.

At the end of the day we were all so tired that everyone in the house (including Dave and I) was asleep by 9:30 and the boys "slept in" until after 6 this morning.