...A Whole New World

I have a kindergartner.  A real live 5 year old, who the next time I blink, will be unpacking in his dorm room.  Honestly?  It makes me a little bit sad and so unbelievably excited.  Each stage thus far has been so different and truly enjoyable (well, except for the incredibly picky eating stage), that I can't help but look forward to watching to see who H is going to be.

The night before he asked, "Mom?  Should I dress handsome or maybe fancy for school tomorrow?"
We settled on handsome.  I suggested fancy (i.e. a bow tie) might be overkill for the first day.

School can be an anxiety trigger for so many kids, and I knew that H would really have to work through some of this.  The kid tends to get anxious over hypotheticals rather frequently, and he was pretty open about his concerns all summer long -- especially the fact that his group of best preschool friends will be attending the school where I teach and not the one where he'll be attending.

Ready for orientation with a backpack full of supplies

Luckily, his school has a separate Kindergarten Orientation day.  B, H, L, and I walked to school - just like he'll do on days he's home with B.  He lined up at the door with the 22 other nuggets - varying from bouncing off the walls with excitement to full on tears (we were somewhere in the middle, thank God) - and off they went for a mini class with is teacher while we listened to the principal and toured the school.  When it was all over, we got to help him unpack his supplies and check out his classroom.  It's so surreal being on the other side of it all!

First Day Sillies

Unfortunately, my first day back to school was also H's first day.  But maybe this was easier on both of us.  Even though my principal generously told me I could scoot out of meetings to take him, B and I decided to try to make his first day as similar as we could to the way the rest will be.  As soon as I knew he'd be back at home after picking H up, I called to hear the rundown of how the day went from B.  Only then did I lose it.  And that was when I realized that I wasn't crying because I was sad.  I'm just so happy my kid LOVES school as much as we knew he would.  First Day.  Check.  Bring on the new adventures.

Like unscheduled play dates?!  About 4 seconds after I walked in the door today, the doorbell rang.  It was a little girl from his class wanting to play.  Having lived in a neighborhood without kids for the last 8 years, I think B and I were a little gun shy at letting him run out the door to a house we've never seen (with "it's the one after the bushes that look like blocks" as the only address provided by the nugget), to play with a girl we've never seen, and be supervised by a parent we've never met.  So, trying not to be a psycho, I walked behind the kids (only about 4 or 5 houses away - yay!), and asked H's tiny and adorable friend to have her mommy come out and meet me.  She did.  She may have thought I was crazy, but 25 minutes later, both of her children were upstairs in my house with both of mine, and it made me feel better.

I guess this means he's growing up.  Might as well embrace it.