When we last left off, I was feeling a teensy bit better about this whole kindergarten thing, having gone through parents orientation AND Jake's orientation. Jake seemed to be feeling better, too; prior to that, he was nervous, and had a million questions (who will I sit with at lunch? how will I find my desk? What if I can't find my way around the school? When will I get to go to gym class?)
The big day rolled around, and we all felt confident and ready. Jake was looking devastatingly handsome (if I do say so myself) in his outfit that I painstakingly selected. He had his backpack ready and stocked with supplies (in a surprising turn of events, he didn't want a new backpack and kept his superhero one that he had carried to preschool) and his lunch was packed in his awesome new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lunchbox. (WHEN WILL I EVER BE ABLE TO STOP PACKING LUNCHES?!?) Everything seemed to be going well, we were right on schedule....time to take the mandatory back to school pictures!! *cue the hysterical crying here*
Yep, he went from calm, cool, and collected to hysterical, just like that. I don't know if the reality sunk in for him or what, but whatever it was, he was not a happy camper. He was sobbing that he didn't want to go, he would miss me, he wanted to go back to preschool, he missed his friends....ugh! as if this morning wasn't hard enough for me as it was, I was barely holding it together before he started crying. Somehow, I managed to keep from crying myself and telling him I'd just homeschool him. What ended up saving the day was a water bottle, of all things. I had bought him a new Superman water bottle to take in his lunch box and had forgotten to show it to him; I remembered this, told him I had a surprise and busted it out for him. Sobs turned to sniffles within seconds....crisis averted. Picture time!!!
That adorable first day of kindergarten sign can be found here. (thank you, pinterest!)
We got through the trauma of getting Jake's meltdown only to face another meltdown: Liam!! As I suspected, Liam had a terrible time with his brother's departure. Liam is completely obsessed with Jake, and at daycare they would often tell me how excited Liam would be to spot Jake during the day, or how much they loved it if they were doing a whole-center activity and got to play together. I knew it wasn't going to be easy on the little guy, yet somehow, it was worse than I expected. He was literally sobbing, "No Jakey! Don't leave me! Don't go!" There I was at the bus stop, trying to hold it all together for the sake of everyone, telling my first baby goodbye and trying to keep my second baby from having a nervous breakdown over the whole thing.
Brian then took Liam into daycare; I had the day off and a million errands to run, but I gave myself a time-out at home first. I cried, looked at some pictures of Jake when he was a baby (that didn't help matters, just for the record), then tried to not fall down the rabbit hole. Letting your kids go is one of those things as a mother where you start to feel like you're Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Today it's kindergarten, next it's middle school, then high school, what if he gets a concussion playing sports?, then they're going to prom and OMG what if his date isn't nice?, and then college, then they're getting married, and so on and so forth. Everyone does this right? Right?
But he was ready for kindergarten. And he'll be ready for all of that other stuff, too. But I'm trying to not worry about that right now. Right now, he is in kindergarten, and he still misses me when he leaves. Right now, he's in kindergarten and he was the most excited kid in the world when I surprised him with a trip to the ice cream shop after picking him up on his first day.
He's in kindergarten, and he still brings home things like this to me:
He's in kindergarten, and we're so proud of the little boy he's becoming.
1 comment:
Ugh! You totally got me at the end of this post with a picture of the raccoon poem.
My mother-in-law tells a great story about my husband's first day of kindergarten. She, my husband, and his younger sister were waiting for the bus. When he got on the bus, my sister-in-law lost her mind. She cried and cried to go with him. She did just fine after those first few days and they're still close today. I'm sure Liam will do well once it becomes routine and he'll branch out on his own a bit too. :)
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