Kindergarten and Second Grade

Wow, what a morning! I started my day at 5:45AM - having to have myself ready for work and getting two kids out the door by 7:10 and 7:30 makes for a busy morning! I bought Zach a new alarm clock yesterday so it would force him out of bed (he is just like me and is a night owl and not a morning person) but when it went off this morning he slept right through it! When I woke him he got right up and was excited about starting school. Aaron got Alex ready and her bus came a little earlier than originally scheduled at 7:05. It takes quite a lot of work to get her ready between starting a tube feeding, giving her her meds, getting her dressed, getting her in her wheelchair, doing her hair, etc., so every second counts when it comes to keeping her on schedule. Once she was gone I told Zach it was time for breakfast and he told me that he couldn't eat this morning because he was "too jealous" (he meant to say nervous!) He got himself dressed and he looked so handsome!

It was pouring rain and definitely not a nice day for our first walk to school. We met two of our neighbors as planned and headed up to school to start our first day of big boy school.

(Just a little excited!)

We gave lots of kisses and hugs outside the building...

and then he walked through the front doors without so much as a glance back at me or Aaron...

...and then the tears started - for me, not him. I've been anticipating this day for months and yet I still couldn't hold them back. My baby is in school, new milestones are ahead of us and I'm excited about that and I'm so excited to watch him grow and learn to read and write, but part of me just wants to keep him my little boy forever. He is so sweet and loving and compassionate and I just hope he stays that way...I have a very special bond with him and I guess I'm just having the separation anxiety, not him!

Alex on the other hand is old hat and heading off to school - she's my big second grader this year!! She was SO excited to see the bus this morning - she started squealing as soon as we left the garage! She LOVES going on the bus and going to school!

I was so anxious all day to know how Zach was doing at school...Audretta goes to school with Alex so all I have to do at any point during the day is call her and I get a full update on how she's doing and by 11:00 I knew she was doing great - it was the not knowing about Zach that was making my day seem really long.

Although we walk Zach to school, he rides the bus in the afternoon. In order to pick him up at school I would have to go into the building and sign him out from the gym. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but with having to take Alex with me, that means running in the door from work, loading the wheel chair in the car, getting her in the car, taking the wheel chair out, loading her into her chair, getting Zach, coming out, loading her back in the car, loading the wheel chair back into the car, etc. so it's really just a lot easier if he takes the bus. All the neighborhood kids take the bus so I was totally fine with it - plus he thought it was a really "cool" thing to do.

He was so excited to see me and Aaron waiting for him at the bus stop with all of the other parents. After all the kissing and hugging I asked him what he did in Kindergarten and he told me..."NOTHING"! What?!? I waited all day to hear he did nothing?!? We got home and I emptied his backpack and his lunch box still had everything I packed for him, minus a few grapes...seems we aren't that much alike because apparently when he's "jealous", he doesn't eat! Amazing how it took me five years to know that little piece of information about him. After having a long talk, he finally seemed a little more at ease and told me all about his day and that he's super excited to go back tomorrow - so I guess that's a good sign! Two projects he came home with today where a piece of paper that had printed on it My First Day of Kindergarten with the date, the school's name and his name with his hand print. Definitely going in frame! The second thing was a really cute book about my first day in Kindergarten that was printed out with a few pictures that he colored that has all the information about his teacher, the other teacher's he'll be meeting (art, music, gym, etc.) - a section for all of my new friends that lists all of the kids in his class. The last page says This is how I looked on my first day of school and Zach drew a picture of himself.

(I love how every time he draws a 'person', he gives them a forehead - he must have been so focused on that he forgot to give himself arms!)

Alex had a great day - she fell right back into her routine. She used her switches, stood in her stander, she ate breakfast AND lunch at school (BY MOUTH!). Alex is in the same class that she started Kindergarten in, but her teacher left at the end of last year and her new teacher is the student teacher she had last year...I'm really excited for her and all of the great things she's going to be doing this year! The one big difference is that she's not the youngest in the classroom anymore - three of the seven kids in her classroom graduated last year so there are two new Kindergartners in her room. Apparently she only had about a five minute nap at school, so by the time she got home...

...she was exhausted! She took over a two hour nap! Her friend Jennifer came over, she ate a big dinner (yes, BY MOUTH!), played for about an hour, we read a story and then she went to bed...being a second grader is tough work!!

The theme for Zach's school year is Oh, The Places You Will Go...and as we start this new milestone together, I can't help but think that there's really nothing more fitting.