First Day

N's first day went really well. He and L are both early risers, so being awake in time for the morning school routine is no problem for us. In fact, we had some extra time to use, so N got to play on the computer before eating breakfast. N wanted little frozen sausage biscuits and strawberries for breakfast. (L and N call strawberries "straw-babies." L recently shortened that down to babies. So, to L we had "Babies and Biscuits" for breakfast) N was awake before Daddy left for work, so they got to chat and get pictures together before Daddy headed out. After getting dressed and ready to go, we headed outside to take pictures. The neighbor boy and his mom and siblings were out waiting for the bus. We talked to them for a bit. Both boys were really excited about their first day of school. They talked about their new backpacks. L picked up on that conversation and insisted on wearing N's "pack pack" for a minute. When I put it on him he realized it was too big and heavy for him so he took it off. I don't know how people get their kids to stand still and take a nice picture on days like these. You always see the first day of school pictures with the child standing nicely and making a sweet easy smile. Not my kid! He's a goof ball when it comes to posed pictures. I ended up setting my camera to "Sports" mode so it would snap ten quick pictures when I hold the button down. I'm glad I did because that allowed me to capture some good moments. Today (and today only) the parents were allowed to take the students into the school to escort them to the gym to wait for the class to be dismissed to their class rooms. I'm glad they allowed that today because that gym was full of kids! It was quite overwhelming at first, but once we found the Kindergarten line we felt better. The principal at our school is VERY involved in the daily activities. She directs traffic during drop off and pick up rain, snow or shine. She then hustles into the gym to get the students to their classrooms. She's involved at lunch time, etc, etc. During the morning gym routine she uses a clapping technique to get the kids' attention. She claps and the kids clap back. The kids caught right on and followed instructions immediately. (I wonder if clapping will work at home. Ha!) The principal allowed the parent to click a few pictures, then away the kids went. I happened to be standing close to the door the kids were exiting, so I reached out my hand and gave N a high five and a "all right" as he left the gym. That made N (well, both of us) feel good. I did see lots of moms crying. I chose not to look too closely at them 'cause I knew I could potentially start to cry and not stop for a while! Ha. That's how I am, though. I don't just shed a handful of tears, then move on. I cry for a good while. Then I get the classic puffy face, runny nose and headache that follow. So, I did my crying last night (as I said in my last post) and held strong this morning. L and I sat in the car for a few minutes after leaving the school and watched the school buses outside the school because he loves buses. Then we headed off to meet some friends at the park to eat muffins and commiserate over our kids going off to school. It was quite therapeutic. And L discovered that he loves "Fuffins" (muffins). A storm rolled in to town, so we headed home. L napped, I exercised and before we knew it, N was heading home on the bus! He said he had a good day. As the afternoon unfolded he remembered things that happened this morning and told me about them. Today was a short day, so the kids did not eat lunch at school. Tomorrow is a longer day and they'll eat lunch at school for the first time. We've got his Planet Box full of goodies. He's excited.