Tuesday, August 19, 2008

First Day


I had everything perfectly organized. But I should have known it would all go horribly awry when Jack woke up (again) at 5:30. He was supposed to wake up at 6:30: after I had done my knee exercises, but in time to be changed, fed, and dressed before Luke got up. So I made Dave go in and get Jack to sleep again, which he did. (Now if only that would occur to me at 1:30 am.)

The next problem was that Dave set Luke's alarm to radio instead of beeps. Then Luke bumped his knee, then he became aware that he had a cough. All things that would be cause for angst on a normal day, but today culminated with him pulling up a chair to the toilet and preparing to barf. Poor boy, the thought of school didn't give me stomachaches until at least 3rd grade.

He didn't want to eat the pancakes that I made, but he managed to choke one down. Then I remembered about the wee one. Jack! By now it was 7:15 or so and I still needed to get Jack fed, and dressed in his coordinated madras plaid shorts that I had ironed in anticipation of the front porch picture. So I woke Jack up, fed him, took off his pajamas and realized we were within minutes of inaugural arrival of the school bus. Cancel the group shot, hand the baby over to Dad. Run out the door with the shoes and wait on the porch with the camera for Luke to cross the threshold. Snap photo of frowning boy, only to notice later that Dad was in the background, shirtless, in bike shorts. Plan to put photo in baby book anyway.

I was literally dragging Luke down the driveway until it occurred to me to offer a piggy back. We piggy backed down the driveway and turned towards the bus stop where Luke saw all the kids and slid off my back and started walking. We got to the bus stop at 7:29, the exact time the bus was supposed to arrive. I confessed to the parents there that I planned to bike to school to meet Luke when he got off the bus and the other parents said they planned to do the same, or already had a spouse on the way. We waited. And waited. Finally the bus arrived at 7:45. Great, what if we were the last stop? Hopped on bikes and pedaled away hoping to beat the bus, which we did, easily.

From there it was no big deal. Luke got off the bus and got a bracelet that marked him as a bus rider so the teachers would know where to send him at the end of the day, and we walked to the playground. Luke was pretty stoic and he just stood next to me, not letting me take his picture until it was time to go in.



We said our good byes and he walked in the door.

Another mom hugged me and asked how I was doing and I teared up a little, but pulled it together.

After school he was all smiles and full of "You know what? Guess what!" which was good because I quickly wasted two of my five questions:

"How was it?" "Good."
"Did you eat your lunch?" "Yes."

Information gleaned:

* We went on a search for the gingerbread man! And we went in the office, to the gym, the music room, the library, and back to our room! And I think the search for the gingerbread man was just a way to give us a tour of the school.
* We went to see Coach L. He's the teacher of maybe P.T.? Yeah, P.E.
* I had to go to the bathroom and I didn't say anything, but then the teacher said, "Bathroom time!" And the same thing happened right when I felt thirsty! It was time for a drink of water!
* Everyone colored on the gingerbread man, but I didn't color anything I just wrote my name.
* Mikey took the rocket I was playing with, and then I started playing with his, and I put a guy in it, but then Mikey took that one back. I guess he wanted a rocket that had a guy in it.
* There is a girl named Clara in my class.
* I had lunch with Kobie and Kaj and I played with Elsa on the playground a little.
* The kids that didn't bring their lunch had pizza!
* We had nap time, and I took a green mat, but when I laid down on it it was so tiny! Only my body and arms fit. And we didn't nap, it was just quiet time
* The teacher has a disco ball, but it doesn't hang from the ceiling, it sits on the floor and that's the light we use during quiet time
* I rode on the bus!
* When I say "guess what" you always say "what" but you are supposed to guess!

We retook the first day of school picture at the end of the day, and that worked out well.


So we survived, but considering the amount of effort that went into that one day, I'm not quite sure how we'll pull it off on a daily basis. I supposed I can skip the pancakes, and the photo ops.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a normal get off to school day. I remember them well. The real trick is to make your child walk around all weekend on a broken leg, and then, send them off to school....

Kristen Bush said...

Megan, I have a love/hate thing going with this update. LOVE because it was descriptive, detailed, and you got LOTS of after school tidbits from Luke. HATE because it was descriptive, detailed, and you got LOTS of after school tidbits from Luke. I must say, though, that now that Paige has, what...almost 4 days of kindergarten under her belt, she is offering up more information than the first day. Luke obviously is going to be a kindergarten pro. I love the pictures! And the healthy Colorado parents bike to school while the sluggish Tennessee parents take cars! Love you.

Unknown said...

I love it. I love how Luke told you so many details! Anthony will just say, "good" and thats all I get!

Linda said...

This surely makes me wish we had had blogging back in the olden days and that I had some of your creativity.

molly said...

What a wonderful day for everyone! Thanks for allowing us to be part of it!

Beth: Like Mom like son!

Meta Megan said...

Hmm - I should write a post about the broken leg incident!

Kristen - I have probably heard more than I will for the rest of the year! At least you have Paige's drawings to interpret!

Beth - are you sure Anthony doesn't say "fine"?

Aunt Linda - Thanks for reminding me! I should really take periodic backups of this blog because I totally stopped writing in the kid journal that I was keeping.

Mom - I guess Anthony and Luke both take after their moms.

Laura M said...

This kid doesn't know what a gold mine he is sitting on:
The dog ate my homework; the WORM ate my homework; the baby ate my homework!!!