First Day of Kindergarten

Well, he did it!

I took my dear, sweet son to Kindergarten this morning.  He was so excited that he dragged me through the technically still-closed doors to get to his classroom a few minutes before we were even supposed to be in the building.  I thought for a moment about stopping him, but decided to go with his wave of excitement -- who am I to tell him on his first day of school that he has to wait six minutes?  The last thing I wanted to do was make him feel self conscious, but he was so thrilled to be there I just didn't have the heart to make him wait.

When we got to his room, we read the list of things to do on the door and followed the directions.  He hung his backpack on his peg, signed in, and was on his way to his seat when I gently caught him.  I stooped down and looked him in the eye, telling him, "I just know you are going to have an awesome day and learn so much today!"

A quick hug and a high five later and I was the only childless mom standing in front of the school, waiting for the doors to open.  I promise to wait tomorrow...

No tear from mom, no tears from boy -- sounds like a great start to the year!

And then I worked for six hours, anxiously checking the clock between tasks, wondering what he was doing and if he felt comfortable enough to ask to use the bathroom.  Of course he did, silly mama...

Finally the time came to pick him up.  I met another mother in the hallway, her daughter is the friend Milo gets to sit next to in class.  We watched a group of kids leave the room for after-school care.  The teacher came in and out four times.  My friend's daughter came out, grinning.  Then Milo and he was beaming.  He charged straight for me, proclaiming, "This is the best elementary school I've ever been in and I LOVE Kindergarten!"

Success!

As we chatted on the way to pick up Violet from daycare, more details of the day came out.  His special today was P.E. and he said, "We ran and skipped and galloped between the lines."

They took a tour of the building and he saw the music room and the art room, met the school secretary and the school nurse.  He liked the pizza for lunch, but accidentally dropped his cake on the floor, "But that doesn't matter, lunch was good anyway."

He enjoyed three recesses and liked the stories he heard.  He sang a song for me and said he learned to say, "Bon Apetite, now let's eat!" before snack.  He brought home a school bus picture he colored with green and blue marker and, best of all, he said his teacher "was nice all day!"

Yay for Milo!  On his way to school, I told him, "You never ever get to have your first day of school again -- this is the only one, so I hope you have a really terrific first day!"  And I do think he did.  And I did tear up when he came out of his classroom with a smile as wide as the Pacific ocean, but only then and only for a minute.