KINDERGARTEN!!!

As I write this, I am distraught...I have spent the last hour and a half looking for the CD's that I saved old pictures on (in order to make space on our hard drive), AND I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE!!! I wanted to put a picture of Wyatt sleeping as a baby as a comparison, because last night, I couldn't help myself and took a picture of my big Kindergartener sleeping:

You can't completely see it, but he's wearing his Montair Elementary T-shirt!

How did this happen?! How did he get so big, so curious, so loving and sweet and infuriating?! I can't beleive 5 years have gone by, and now I have had to relenquish him to "the system". Yep, that same system that was a part of my life for almost 10 years: public education!

I googled first day of school traditions ('cause I'm not creative enough to come up with one on my own!) and found this cute one based on a German tradition. On the morning of the first day of school, children are given a huge cone (Schultuete) filled with all kinds of back to school goodies. It can be whatever you want - candy, school supplies, toys, etc. So I made one for Wyatt and had it on the table for when he woke up in the morning. He LOVED it! I wasn't downstairs, yet, when he got up, but I could hear Wyatt asking Matthew, "What is that?!"

All the goodies dumped out!

It was a great way to start the morning. Wyatt is PM Kinder, so we didn't head to school until about 10:15. At about 9:00 a.m., he was asking if we could just go, yet?! I couldn't have agreed with him more! The build-up and anticipation was excruciating!!!

Matthew came home from work to go with us and we were off. Wyatt was ready to get in there and play on the playground. No hesitations or anything! It was asked of the parents to stay w/their child for the shortened 2 hour morning, so Matthew took Annabelle for a run while I stayed on and explored Kindergarten with Wyatt. It was nice to be there with him, but he really didn't need me to be! I was amazingly calm and not emotional at all. Since this has been a 6 month process of preparation (from getting the reg. packet in February, to the Kinder orientation in May (I teared up at this! how strange is that?!), to the registration in early August), that I was as ready as Wyatt!

Outside his classroom door

Playing some hoops before we went into his classroom (that's Annabelle running in the background).

That's Mrs. Larson, Wyatt's teacher. She had them singing a song for us and doing little motions with it - we got to see it from behind! More than anything, this picture shows how big my little guy is in comparison to all the other kindergarteners!!!

His first day was great and almost like a party (someone had brought cupcakes for them to have at snack time!), and was finished off with a school BBQ put on by the 5th graders. We were done and home by 1:30 - just in time to put on our swimsuits and head to the pool!

It was the second day of school that got me...really dropping him off, him being so big and independent, ready, and willing to go, etc.

On Wednesday when I picked him up and was aksing him all of the questions - very detailed ones based on what I know goes on in a classroom on a regular basis - b/c you know, you can't just ask what you did you do - they don't remember! After about the 6th question, Wyatt said, "How do you know to ask about all of these things?!" I reminded him that I was a teacher once, and that I have a lot of teacher friends, and WE KNOW what goes on in classrooms! He liked that.

So we are adjusting to our new schedule. It is actually really cool that I get good chunks of one on one time with both kids throughout the week. They are on opposite schedules, which means TONS of in and out of the car for me and them, but I think it will work out well. Here's a little taste of a typical Monday for us:

8:30 Take Annabelle to school

9:00-11:35 Hang out with Wyatt

11:50 Take Wyat to school

12:00 - 1:00 Hmmm....an hour by myself - what can you fit into an hour?!

1:00 pick up Annabelle from school

1-3:00 Try to get AB down for a nap - it's about 50/50 right now, which is fine - if not we can play

3:00 Pick up Wyatt

Whew! Lots of starts and stops, but we'll get used to it!!!

So I'm off to yank Annabelle out of bed so we can go pick up Wyatt. I am very lucky that she wakes up happy pretty much no matter what! I will continue to look for those CD's...if anybody has any bright ideas where I could have put them, please drop me an email...you'd think they'd be with the other CD's I have, but they aren't. Go figure...