And Then I Had A Kindergartner!

Of course, the start of September means the start of school.  And, since I had a 5 year old, that meant I was now the proud mother of a Kindergartner!  I mean seriously, how in the world did he go from

this...

... to THIS...

... so quickly?!?!?  The night before school started the PTA put on an ice cream social so that the kids could hang out on the playground, the parents could mingle and get to know each other, and most importantly, so that the kids could find out who their teacher would be and which classroom they would be in. 

We wasted no time checking out Jack's teacher/room assignment and peeking at the playground where I would be dropping him off each day.

 

I took a bunch of pictures of Jack next to all the murals and signs that I would be making a point to get every year that he went there so as to compare the year-by-year photos, and then we grabbed some ice cream!

 

The next morning we did a great job getting ready to go and leaving in time for school!  I even had plenty of time to take the traditional first-day-of-school photos!

And of course we couldn't forget one with Little Brother!

And then it was off to school!  Dave had taken the day off so that he wouldn't have to miss this milestone event and so that I wouldn't have to do it all by myself (mommy's emotions are tricky when it comes to her babies!!!).  We parked, hopped out, and Jack skipped along behind daddy and Sammy, all ready for his big first day of Kindergarten!

I showed him where to hang his backpack, choked back tears as I helped him introduce himself to his teacher and inform her of his allergies, and then stood there staring at him like a blubbering idiot as Dave and I waited for the teacher to kick all the parents out.  (I'm tearing up as I write this blog post... I still can't believe he's growing up so much, and this was almost a year ago!!!)

 

I honestly don't remember what I did while I was waiting to go pick Jack up.  I know right when we left the classroom we went to the cafeteria to listen to the principal have an orientation of sorts with the kindergarten parents, but I can't remember what she said or where we went from there.  I think I blocked it out... all I could think of was my baby!  I was so relieved when it was time to pick him up!  I knew he would have a great first day, but I was sooooo anxious to hold him in my arms and to hear about how it all went!

Of course, I brought my camera to pick-up, too ;) 

And then I had my baby back!!!  He had a great first day, of course.  He loved school and couldn't wait to go back!  I'm so grateful, too, and it was definitely an answer to my prayers.  As hard as it was for me to leave him there, it would have been so much harder if I had to leave him there while he was upset about it!  But that's the nature of Jack, and I'm so grateful that God gave this kid to me, even if he does have to start growing up.  His joy in everything he does makes my world so much brighter ;)