Kindergarten

I'm not really sure how my baby is old enough to go to school.  Honestly...wow, did those 5 years fly.

He got new shoes (my 5 year old wears size 3 shoes...ridiculous), some new clothes (Indiana Jones Lego shirt), and some new pants (size 7).  He got supplies (pencils and glue sticks were the only "school" ones, the others were kleenex, etc).  He got an earful of encouragement and excitement from everyone he ran across (kindergarten!  how fun!  you'll love it!).  And he was pumped. 

He has PM class, so he catches the bus a bit after noon and rides with only the other kids in his class (which, for the record, has 16 boys and 3 girls!). 

He climbed on (with a gentle push from me) and didn't look back.  He also went past all the kids and towards the back of the bus...but stopped about halfway.  I was a bit teary eyed, but not a ton.  Since it isn't in the morning, it feels kind of like he's just going to play somewhere...doesn't feel "school" like.  I am just more sad about him going "out into the world"...less protected, going to hear about and see stuff from other kids that I might not love, going to meet kids that I don't love...just kind of sad to send him out of his bubble. 
 

I followed the bus to see him get off (dork?), and all the 5th graders were there to cheer for them and welcome them. 

He climbed off minus his backpack. As I'm taking pictures, I say "Z! Get your backpack!"

He retrieved it and was back on track :)

When we picked him up from school I made him take a pic out front.  He was not thrilled.  One of us will always pick him up, at least this year...I'm not quite ready for him to ride with all the big kids. 

We decided on a first day of school tradition:  ice cream for dinner.  We all went out and got ice cream and talked about the first day. 

Z really did give me a lot of information about his class...it wasn't just one word answers (although there were a lot of those too). 

On Friday (the 3rd day) he got in and told us about his day.  He was talking about some of the other kids always asking to go outside and how he didn't like that and/or do that.  Then he said, "Mrs. G says I always make wonderful choices!"  We figure that she must have asked them to do something, kids said they wanted to go outside, Z obeyed, and she made that comment.  Regardless of the circumstances, we could NOT be prouder of him!

When I first found out he had PM kindergarten I was kind of bummed...I am used to having 2 mornings with just the little boys.  I still think it will be quite a transition to have him every morning, but the payoff is looking awesome:  we get Z on the bus, we go inside and read books, the littles take naps for 2 hours, then we get up, play for a few minutes, then go get Z and/or Daddy is home.  That means 2-2.5 hours of TOTAL me time.  Of course I have stuff to do, but I don't have someone talking to me and distracting me...oh, the quiet is fabulous! 

So off we go to a new world...