Kindergarten, here we come!

The light version of today:

classic front door shotcutting through the vacant lot by our house to shave 5 minutes off our walk

the path to the school

getting settled

listening to a story

No pictures of mom's sad walk home alone.

The dark version:

95% of our walk to school was great. It was 90 degrees out. Charlie was making jokes about how I was going to cry when I had to leave him. All was well until we got about 1/2 way across the soccer field. We were mid-way across when recess for the 5th and 6th graders started. I don't know the exact number but lets say roughly 80 giant kids started pouring out of the school and started running straight for us. Half of them swarmed the playground while the other half spilled on to the field we were cutting across.

Charlie stopped dead in his tracks and his mood changed instantly. He stammered: I didn't know I'd be going to school with such big kids. I'm not used to seeing such big kids. Mom, we've got to move, we're in their way. We're going to get hit by a ball!

My heart was totally breaking for him. This was exactly why I had such a hard time leaving the house today. My baby has been so sheltered. We've kept his world so protected, totally by design, up until now.

He's going to learn words like "fart" and "nu-uhhh" and "shut-up". Kids are going to make fun of him when he says "bless you" to himself when he sneezes. I can't go on or I'll never finish this post.

So back to today. He's frozen in his tracks in the soccer field and I can't really get him to move. I try grabbing his hand but he shakes me off (embarrassed?). I resort to kind of walking behind him in a herding fashion to get him moving.

We finally get to his classroom, which is a portable outside the school, and I see someone I know. I visit for a couple of minutes and Charlie hides behind me holding my leg. His confidence is gone.

Next we walk in to the classroom which is full of about 38 parents and 19 kids. Charlie's the only one without a dad? I didn't know this was a 2 parent kind of event, we'll get it right with Annie. So he has to walk through the crowd and find his seat. He won't even look at the other kids at this point.

After he got seated the teacher called the kids over to the circle time area and told the parents to sit in the kid's seats. She read them The Kissing Hand while we (or possibly just me?) tried not to listen because the words would make us (just me) cry.

When she was done reading she told the kids to turn around and blow their parents a kiss and then said it was time for us to leave. Charlie turned around and gave me the biggest smile. It was then that I knew he'd be ok. He was in his element now sitting on the carpet listening to stories surrounded only by 5 year olds. Me on the other hand could hardly see the door through my tears.

His teacher had given us some Hershey kisses wrapped up in a little tissue with a little note attached. When I got outside I ripped the note off, stuffed the kisses into my pockets Napolean Dynomite style, and used the tissue to wipe my snotty nose like the classy, classy lady that I am.