Noah's First Day of School

Well, we survived the first day of kindergarten. There were less tears than I imagined and no wailing like I'd envisioned. There was no need for a box of tissues and no need to peel us apart at the doorway.

I did much better than I thought, thank you very much.

Oh, and Noah was a champ, too.

The day started off around 6:40 when Brian went to wake the guys.

I use the term, "wake," loosely. Man, 6:40 is early!

He'd fixed a waffle breakfast and we kicked off the big day with giving Noah the backpack Brian had picked out. Not because we planned it as a first day of school surprise, but more like, of all the things we needed to buy for school, somehow we waited til the dead last minute to buy this. Brian made a run to Wal-mart around 9:00 last night.

Either way, Noah was delighted.

Tyler was even feeling the love as he told him, "I'm goina miss you."

First, we sent the big boy off to school.
And then began the anxiety wherein Noah followed me around the house all morning and made statements like, "Seven hours is a long time. I'm going to miss you. Preschool was only five hours." And, finally, he asked if I could get on Facebook to ask my friends if kindergarten is fun.

Facebook much, Jen?

I obliged and my friends came through with wonderful words of encouragement. He got on a few times before we left so he could read them. He also felt a sudden need to practice writing his name using lower case letters (he'd been writing in uppercase throughout preschool).

I've been trying all summer to get him to do this. It was 20 minutes before we needed to leave for school. I think he inherited my procrastination gene. So, I broke out the dry erase pad and wrote his name. And he practiced.
I think his nerves got the better part of him again since the last one he practiced reverted back to the capital "A."

We took this picture of Noah to mark how he looked his first day of school.
Incidentally, it dawned on me later that it's no good taking pictures year to year to mark how much your child has grown if you take them next to a tree THAT WILL ALSO GROW.

We loaded up the car and I was a happy camper. We live about three minutes from school. I was soooo proud of myself for getting the crew out of the house with 20 WHOLE minutes before school. This is a feat for the girl who has Asian blood coursing through her veins. Which basically means I'm perpetually late. Only 179 more times to go. Oh my word.

Anyway, we left with 20 minutes before the tardy bell.

Rookie mistake.

Because, on the first day of school, it turns out, it takes two WHOLE minutes just to pull out of the neighborhood.

And then whomever designed the school modeled the pick up lane after the Bermuda Triangle. Once you get in, you cannot get out. I wasn't really panicked until I turned into the parking lot and realized I was committed. There was no getting out. Even if I were not driving a honkin' huge bus Expedition, I couldn't have squeezed my way out of there. There is a small part of me that wondered if I could barrel across the grassy field as I was in a SUV. But I get the feeling that would've been frowned upon and I'm really trying hard to get accepted into the PTA. I was either going to get a parking spot or I was going to make Noah tardy on his first day of school because it was going to take forever to break out of the parking lot, find a place to park and then walk three kids into the school in nine minutes.

On the hottest day on record this year.

Enter PANIC MODE. Oh, how I sweated. Oh, how I kicked myself for making Noah late on his first day. And, oh how I prayed and begged God to open up a miracle spot. Just as things were looking dismal and I was in full panic mode, my prayers were blessedly answered in the very last parking space. I threw that monster truck in park and unloaded the crew.
We entered the kindergarten pod with minutes to spare.

And then...the big moment that I'd been dreading for six years. The big goodbye-to-your-babyhood-what-happened-to-yesterday-when-you-were-still-blowing-spit-bubbles-at-me-and-are-you-sure-we-didn't-enter-some-warped-time-zone-where-six-years-vanished-just-like-that-does-anybody-else-hear-Billy-Dean-singing-Let-Them-Be-Little-playing-in-the-background moment.

BUT MY BOY ROCKED IT. I was so proud of Noah! I planted an air kiss in his hand and squeezed it shut. I showered him with words of love and excitement. And then I did the rookie parent thing and lingered in the doorway so I could snap these pics.Oh, yes, and he did return to me for one last hug before he disappeared into the pod. You can see the anxiety on his face. But, he bravely marched on into his room and found his table.
Tyler, Anniston and I headed to the cafeteria for the Boo-hoo's and Yahoo's breakfast.

Until I realized that the only worse thing than crying while you down OJ and bagels is doing it in front of a bunch of strangers, so we left.

Brian's school lets out thirty minutes before Noah's, so he was able to jump in the car and go with us to pick him up. I think the only time I was that close to being so excited to see Noah was the day I met him. I kept tearing up and even caught myself clapping my hands, so great was my anticipation.

Brian's take on the whole Kindergarten deal was that we were,"One step closer to some one-on-one time."

Only 18 more years to go, Mr. Sentimental.

Our boy finally came out of the building. More like burst out of the building and ran to us. This is the picture Brian snapped when Noah spotted us.

Other than pointing out that I forgot to pack his snack (who forgot to tell me I was supposed to pack a snack??? Mommy Fail!), he breathlessly announced that "everything" was his favorite. His cheeks were pink, his eyes were dancing and he was completely and fully in love with that thing called Kindergarten.

When we got home, the schoolboys had a surprise waiting for them. We've decided to start a new first day of school tradition where they get a bag of treats when they get home. I orginially was going to put them in tube socks and call them, "School Socks." Until I realized...School Socks. School. Socks. Sounds too much like, "School Sucks." So, it looks like I'll need to come up with another name for it.

The first day wouldn't have been complete without his first homework assignment.

And, finally, here is the picture taken at the end of a very sweaty, satisfying day with a door that WILL NOT GROW.