Kindergarten!

Alex is a kindergartener!!

Of course, in my rush to be "on time" and have a "perfect" first day, we ended up at the school way too early. (hence, I learned that you aren't allowed inside until a few minutes before school starts!) We had some time to chat with other parents, who had similarly confused and perhaps nervous little kids.

Then... the big moment. The first bell rang! We crowded in with the other kids and parents into the building and found his class. Alex was thrilled to see his friend Timothy from pre-school. We found a spot for his bag and lunch, and he sat down right next to Timothy. His teacher was great--she immediately engaged the kids despite the chaos of parents and siblings in the room. Their task was to decorate the "pizza rounds" however they wanted.

Alex clued right in to the word "pizza" and started decorating his like (surprise!) a pizza. His color scheme was interesting, though. He had green sauce around the outside, yellow pepperoni, and blue cheese. The teacher and the aids helped the kids put their names on them (I'm proud that my kid could do his first and last name!). Later on, they used them as seats when they had floor time.

The teacher politely dismissed the parents, by "inviting" us to join the parent's reception once our child was engaged. It was, honestly, probably easier all around NOT to have us there. Alex was concerned with my where-abouts for, oh, about 90 seconds. Then, once he was working on his project and talking with Timothy, he told me, "You can leave whenever you want, Mama!"

Hey, it's better than tears, right??

As I stood there, watching him proudly follow the teacher’s lead, a few conversations came back to me. The first is from my Aunt Mary Lou. Sometime during Alex’s babyhood, we were talking about how attached Alex was to me. She said something like, “Yes, you and Stefan will be the superheroes in his life until he starts kindergarten—then his teacher will be the star of his life!” I could see that… he was eager to do exactly as she said and follow her directions. Is she going to be the new hero? But, even if she is, that’s okay. He’s ready for a bigger world that we were providing at home—and this new adventure is sure to bring that!

The second is from a coworker and friend from the time immediately following Alex’s birth. I was complaining about how HARD it was having a baby and how I couldn’t wait for him to grow up (remember, these were the early, teeny, tiny baby days!). He said to me, “Christine, in a matter of only a few years, Alex is going to go off to Kindergarten and you are going to stand outside crying, wondering where your baby went!” I scoffed at the time, but now I’m thinking DARN IT why did he have to mention crying? Had he not mentioned crying nearly six years ago, I wouldn’t be thinking about crying now!

So I scuttled off to work, stopping on the way to drown my sorrows in a cup of chai tea from Jefferson Market...

I called from work near the end of the day to get the "report" on how school had gone. "It was GREAT!" he said. "I even got to play super heroes with Timothy!" So all was well. I asked about lunch-time and how it went. "Really good! I used one of your dollars to buy chocolate milk!" (note: I gave him three dollars as an emergency stash to keep in his bag just in case he forgets his lunch one day) Later on, on the way to soccer practice, he further justified the chocolate milk, "It sustained me for the day!" Oh well, there's some calcium there under all the sugar, right?