First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Zach's first day of kindergarten, and it was a great day. I heard him shortly after he got up, so I went to his room and opened the door, and he was very excitedly getting dressed. He told me, "When I woke up, I said, 'I'm officially a kindergartner!!'" I was glad to see him excited and not nervous. I think we started a tradition today of making blueberry coffeecake (one of my family's long-time favorites) for the first day of school. Zach also requested souffle, but I didn't have the right ingredients, so he settled for scrambled eggs with sausage in them. Drew, the kid who loves fruit above all other foods, would not touch the blueberry coffeecake. I don't get it.

Anyway, here's Zach shortly before we left home for school. He was happy all morning.

This picture kinda cracks me up.

We had to get one picture with both boys. Maybe by the time he's 3 will Drew realize he can open his eyes and smile for pictures at the same time.

I have to admit, I love this picture of the boys and me. I mean, seriously, how cute are those two boys?

And this is a pretty good family picture, too. I wish Drew were smiling and we had a better background, but that's ok. All 4 of us (5 if you count my baby belly) in one picture, mostly looking at the camera with happy faces- that's pretty good.

Mike and I are so proud of Zach and so excited for this school year. I love this picture, too.

And a great picture of Zach and Mike.

Here's Zach showing off his new backpack. I think he picked an especially cute one!

Drew said on the way to school, "Will Zach leave with us?" When I told him no, he kind of sighed and said, "I not see him again!" in a very put-out manner. It was cute. But once we got to school, Drew was quick to find the wheelbarrow he discovered Monday night at Meet-the-Teacher-Night. He quickly put Lightning McQueen in for a ride and said, "Mom, I ba-ow-en-cing this?" (balancing), and then said, "I have strong muscles for this!"

Zach saw his buddy Jonah, who was in his preschool class, right away, and that seemed to help dispel any nerves he may have had, though he didn't seem too nervous to begin with. We went to his desk/table and got him situated and took a couple more photos. There are 24 kids in Zach's class (up from 18 on the class list this May, which kind of bums me out), and of those 24, only 6 are girls! This teacher may have her hands full! At least she has a full-time associate and a one-on-one associate in with her to help tame all the testosterone in there.

One of Mike's patients asked him the other day, "So who will cry more- your wife or your son?" and Mike answered with, "I don't think either of them will cry, actually," and he was right. I got just a little choked up giving Zach a hug good-bye, but really, I'm not sad about him starting kindergarten; I'm excited. I'm so excited for all he'll learn, the friends he'll make, the fun he'll have, and just how much he'll grow this year. I'm not an overly emotional person, but I still wondered if there was something wrong with me for not crying on my first-born's first day of kindergarten. I think it helps that it's just half-day kindergarten, too. I'm sure I've mentioned this before in this blog, but I'll say it again. The school district in which we live only offers full-day kindergarten. Zach has an early June birthday, so for a long time we were on the fence about whether to send him to kindergarten this year or to wait a year. We decided to open-enroll him to a neighboring district that offered one half-day class, because we felt that that bought us one more year to sort of make up our minds. At the end of this year, hopefully we'll know for certain if Zach is ready for first grade or if he should go to full-day kindergarten next year. Either way, he'll move to our home district. I think academically he is ready for this, and I know it's early to say this, and Mike may disagree, but at this point, I think he'll go to first grade next year. But when I say that, I say it just as my inkling, not a decision that has been made already. The nice thing, too, is that this half-day program offers the exact same curriculum that the full-day program offers, so I don't feel like Zach is missing out an anything other than some extra specials (P.E., art, etc.), lunch, a few more recesses, rest time, and a lot of time spent walking down the hall to and from these various things. I think it's a shame more districts around here don't offer a half-day option, really, but at the same time, I understand why they don't. The drive to Zach's school only took about 10 minutes today, so it's not a terribly long drive, but I'm not looking forward to it come winter. At least a good chunk of the drive is on the interstate, so in the winter that may actually be a good thing.

Anyway, Zach gave Mike and me hugs, told Drew good-bye, and was off on his first assignment.

The kid was all excited for us to pick him up after school because we said we'd go out to lunch, but we actually had to take him to the doctor. It seems he developed a rash overnight, and we noticed it just before school this morning. After a quick talk with my mom (who is a nurse), we figured it was probably a reaction to the Amoxicillan he's been on for his ear infection. I called the pediatrician anyway, and they wanted us to bring him in to check it out right after school. The doctor we saw agreed that it was probably an allergic reaction, so I guess we know not to give him Amoxicillan anymore! And thank goodness that's all it was. I felt kind of bad sending him to school with a rash like that, worrying about the other kids, but at the same time, it was his first day of real school EVER, and I didn't want to make him miss it if it was some minor rash caused by an allergic reaction. He was acting normal, didn't have a fever, and actually said his ear felt "almost all better," which made for the first day his ear didn't feel "pretty bad" in about 2 weeks, so I didn't think he was sick with something else. Anyway, it's times like these that I'm thankful to have a mother in the health industry who can give me good advice!

So I would consider Zach's first day of kindergarten a definite success! I hope there are 179 more days just like it (minus the rash, of course). I think it is going to be a great year.

(And let me give myself a pat on the back for getting this post done the day it took place!)