The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

My (first) baby boy started school today. 

*Wails* *Sobs* *Throws Fit* *Snot Runs Down Face* *etc*

Okay actually, I did NOT cry today. Which I thought maybe was a bad thing? Shouldn't I be more upset? This is the first day of 14 years of school. (as long as he doesn't get held back. Which he better not.) Though it isn't like REAL elementary school, just PRE-school, so maybe I'm just saving my tears until Kindergarten. 

Or maybe I'm overthinking it. 

Where WAS I?

A friend was gracious enough to offer to watch Camden this morning so that I could drop Calen off alone and take pictures without having to worry about baby brother. I really enjoyed our little special morning together. His little school is small rented building attached to a church in downtown Cape May. As we walked up to the doors (which were locked) he took it upon himself to say hi to all his new classmates (ten or so) and I watched him take on a leadership type role as he convinced everyone to play in the gravel. Great influence. This is bizarre to me because usually Calen is a follower, not a leader. But it was fun to watch. He's definitely not shy.

Ready for his first day of school!

The doors opened and they hung up their little backpacks and went to the play area to play with a plethora of "new" toys with his new little friends. 

He didn't give a crap that I was leaving. I even had to beg him for a kiss when I left. Which he happily gave to me and then turned his back to me as he found an entire box full of Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys. 

Exactly how I wanted it. See you in three hours. 

Running to class

I picked up Cam and we went on some thoroughly exciting errands to the doctor's office, Walmart and Kmart. (ooooh, thrilling). Surprisingly, little Cam and I had an absolute blast. For the first time ever, it was just he and I. He really comes out of his shell when he is not being overrun by his big brother. We took our time and pushed the cart through the aisles and Cam would point at things and go "Yeah!" (his way of saying "Hey, look at this!"). We tried on silly hats and played with toys. It was a fun time together.

At noon I went to pick up Calen. When the teacher finally opened the school room door for us to come in, all of us parents gave out a resounding mushy "awwwww!" as we see two tables full of tiny little people sitting silently in tiny little chairs with their backpacks in front of them waiting patiently for us with little smiles on their faces. 

Who ARE these teachers, lion tamers? How the hell did they transform our monkeys into little short people in three short hours? And it's only the first day. 

Calen informed me RIGHT as he saw me "I have papers in my backpack!" Which clearly was extremely important to him. (the papers were actually pictures that he colored). Then he told me that he "played elephants and cars and big trucks and race cars!!!" And later informed me that he sang "itsy bitsy spider" and "Wheels on the bus" and that he liked school and was 'xited' (excited). School is officially a success. 

Because we like any excuse possible to celebrate and give surprises to our kids, Calen had a new small Lego set and a toy snake waiting for him in his carseat to celebrate his first ever day of school. Then after dinner we took him to Yogo Factory for frozen yogurt. I figured it's a pretty damn good reason to celebrate.   

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