First Day of Kindergarten!!!

First day pre-K last year

First day pre-K last year

My LO started kindergarten today.  He is in Ms M's class and is not with his best buddy W.  In fact, while he went to pre-K with 11 out of 30 people in his grade, he only has two of those in his class.  So we've all been practicing our "fake it 'til you make it" happy faces since registration on Monday.  He and I have both felt disappointed, but I think we've done a pretty great job of being optimistic.  He seemed genuinely excited this morning as he hopped out of bed at 6:45, got himself dressed, then played oh-so-briefly with Boo before breakfast.  (Normally they get to play for almost an hour before I call them upstairs.)  DH stayed home this morning, and went to work an hour late so he could see LO and say goodbye.  He also stayed in the kitchen with me for nearly two hours last night after we made a last minute decision to throw together a special breakfast.  As much as I fight it, around here food=love, and if we were to send LO off to school this morning feeling loved, a special breakfast was just the way to do it.  So LO came upstairs this morning to plates of breakfast cookies, eggy tortilla cups, and kiwi slices.

Breakfast bar pic, first day of Kindergarten

We let him take what he wanted (which meant THREE tortilla cups, three (?) cookies, and kiwi before we cut him off).  He wore his "epic" shirt rather than the new outfit he'd chosen weeks ago because he and W have the same shirt.  No doubt he was thinking of his buddy this morning and missing him.  In just 45 minutes, everyone was ready to hit the road.  We took a few obligatory "first day" pics.

As we were getting ready to go, Boo started singing a made up song out of nowhere.  The lyrics were, "how do you say goodbye to your best friend?"  I almost lost it.  I pointed it out to DH.  He in return pointed out that I was missing the end of the line.  It was actually "how do you say goodbye to your best friend...ballooney!" as Boo was playing with a balloon.  LO chose to ride his bike to school today, so I took off with him and BOB (our jog stroller).

And...

he's...

off!

BOB and I haven't spent much time together this summer, so I got a pretty good workout up the steady hill to LO's new school. 

Heading out of the neighborhood, I took the lead for about 30 seconds.

This was my view most the way to school though. 

 LO enjoyed "making" me run by speeding right along, but he stopped for me periodically to let me catch up.  We made good time (about 20 minutes) and arrived at school as soon as it opened (7:52)!  Here's where things went a little awry.  It was a good plan, I think, but we failed in execution.  I tried to coordinate with W's mom that we would meet them where their path to school intersects with ours (which, incidentally, is right across the street from the school.).  I thought it might be fun for them to walk together into school. We arrived a few minutes early, so I walked their route to their house and waited outside for them for about 10 minutes.  W has two older siblings, so I just thought they might be running a little late.  A little after 8, I decided we had to go to LO's class without seeing his buddy. We approached the school to find W's mom as she had clearly just dropped W off.  We missed the whole thing, and I tried to hurry inside to keep LO from being late and from seeing the tears W's mom was trying to hide.  It was kind of a disaster, but I don't believe in accidents.  The whole thing kept LO and me from thinking about the drop off, and he was so close to being late, that I didn't linger at all when I took him to his door.  I don't even know what his face looked like.  His whole class was inside already seated and working.  His teacher greeted him from across the room, and he just froze.  I then bent down, kissed his head and cheeks, and, in the most reassuring voice I could muster, told him I love him and I'd see him at 1.  I then left him standing in the door.  No pictures, no kisses for hands (our pre-K routine), no songs about mommy coming back (also pre-K routine).  I just dropped and bailed.  I wondered later if he had been upset about me failing to do our pre-K routine, but he hasn't mentioned it, and I got no reports of tears.  

Fast forward five hours, I drove to pick up LO for his early dismissal (His school does a "phase in" so only half the class goes each of the first four days.   The first day is shorter, the second is normal, then the whole class starts going every day next Thursday.)  I met W's mom and we managed to take pictures of the boys together. 

 LO seemed really happy and excited about his day.  He has been home now for two and a half hours, and I still don't know too much about his day.  On the way home though he said "mom, I'd like to get my lunch at the window instead of bringing it from home.  I saw some kids getting really healthy, yummy lunches from the kitchen there."  Day one.  Of course he wants school lunch.  When I said no, he replied with "well what if Daddy forgets to pack my lunch and you're not home, so I don't have one at school?"  (Does that ever happen?)  "Sure buddy, you can wait for that to happen one day, then they'd let you buy it from the kitchen."  We also know he "made a new friend, but I don't know his name...maybe O?"  He also saw W for recess and PE.  They played "blob" for PE, and he had a coach, whose name is "coach."  LO was able to FaceTime briefly with DH when we got home, and he told DH "I had such a good time, I don't remember what happened!"  I guess that's the best first day report we could get!