And No Tears Were Shed

As I am finding out, a day each mother does not look forward to at any age- the first day of school.

I decided to keep myself busy and had a good friend and his wife over for dinner last night to keep my mind off of Daniel starting school. It worked and we had a lot of fun.

Then . . . this morning came. And . . . Daniel was truly getting on my nerves and I was truly excited for him to go. And I thought to myself, "This is how it is suppose to be. He needs to get out there and experience life for himself- to learn, expand that mind and experience situations I can't create at home."

Our walk to school was short. Five minutes. Daniel was READY to go and was way ahead of us. This never happens. Whenever we go for walk, we have to keep telling him to keep us with us.

I am grateful for two things right now.

1. Carlo was able to go with me this morning. He was the picture taker and Coral Controller (more about that later).

2. Daniel has a friend from church in his class, which means I have a "Mom Friend" from church to hang out with while waiting to drop off and pick up.

I had to have one picture with Daniel and I and it looks like he can hardly wait to get away from me! He told me the sun was in his eyes. Hilarious!

He had NO problems with us leaving him at school. But that's okay, he told me he loves me.

The teacher read, "The Kissing Hand," with all the parents in the room and then each child came and said good-bye and that was it. "The Kissing Hand" is about a raccoon that goes to kindergarten and his mom kisses his palm and tells him that kiss will always stay there (something like that- Coral was being kind of crazy). And when Daniel came home, I found his hand print with a heart in the middle. My first of many mom treasures.

And then there was Coral. She had to wear her backpack to school. Daniel told her before we left that she couldn't go because she's not five. She began bawling.

She played with him on the playground while waiting for school to start. Then she followed him right in to his classroom and sat at the table with him. I grabbed her and then she followed him up to the rug where they sat for the story and made herself right at home. I had to grab her again and Carlo took her outside where I heard her screaming. Finally, I went out there and she came running to me and we went back inside just in time for the story to start.

She wanted to be with Daniel. She grabbed some blocks off a shelf. We finally left and then she cried for the first few minutes and said, "I want to go to school." When we came home, she found something to entertain her and then stood up and yelled, "DANIEL!" But she couldn't find him. Luckily there were no tears when I reminded her that he was at school. Whew!

And boy did 2 1/2 hours go by fast. I had time to do dishes from the night before, some laundry, straighten up rooms, have Coral pick up her toys, change her diaper and then walk back. As soon as Daniel saw me he said, "I was good Mom, but she forgot the stickers to put on my hand."

After the "Meet and Greet" on Friday, I read the parent's letter and the teacher wrote that she put a sticker on each kid's hand if they had been good for the day. So, I told Daniel to let him know that I would know if he was good or bad for the day. He wanted to make sure I knew he was good!

Now to the next how every many days of school for this year and the next 18!