Oh these kids of mine just keep breaking my heart by getting older and bigger and hitting new milestones. First that wiggly tooth fell out of Liam’s mouth, then he started kindergarten, and now we’re potty training Nora. The hits just keep on coming.
Yesterday was the first day of Kindergarten. Or better yet, this weekend was Liam’s last taste of freedom before he spends the next 13-20 years in a classroom. His final hours were spent with these wonderful people:
Then yesterday morning, Liam woke up excited and got dressed in the first day outfit he and I had bought together last week and laid out the night before. He got to pick breakfast and requested cereal and pancakes with syrup. I made real pancakes containing gluten and not from the freezer, while Liam and Nora dug through the items in their schultueten. The schultuete is a German tradition for the first day of school. It’s a decorated cone filled with goodies like school supplies and treats. Beate and her family had brought them over from Germany for us – a big one for Liam and a little one for Nora so that she didn’t feel left out.
The kids dug into their pancakes and then played with their new things until it was time to go to the bus stop. Jason and I both stayed home from work in the morning for the occasion, so we all put on shoes, snapped a few pictures, and then walked to Liam’s bus stop.
I could tell he was nervous – but also happy and excited. When the big, yellow bus got there, he climbed on, sat down, waved through the window and rode off.
I was so nervous that he wasn't going to look back or wave (because Emily had warned me that it might happen because Ethan hadn't on his first day), that part of me was so relieved he had waved goodbye. But the other part of me was totally wrapped up in the devastation of having your first born climb onto a bus full of strangers and ride off to a new place all by himself. Admittedly, Jason and I cried like babies behind our sun glasses. To add to the drama, it was also our 7 year wedding anniversary. I don't think the moment could have been more sentimental. When we got home, Jason squeezed Nora and told her to stay little forever.
Liam came home from school happy but unwilling to share many details. As Cathleen put it, it’s like his memory is erased before they send him home. It takes a lot of creative question asking, but since yesterday I have managed to gather the following facts (which may or may not actually be factual): The kids are not allowed to talk during lunch, they have a special hand signal they have to do to use the bathroom, there is a bathroom connected to the classroom, Liam has not had to poop at school yet, they are not allowed to run on the playground, there are two playgrounds, Liam made a new friend who speaks a different language, Liam’s classmate who rides his bus cannot sit with him because he sits with his older brother, Liam liked his lunch, Liam may have gone to the art room yesterday, and Liam believes he must select a best friend but hasn’t decided on one yet, and Liam has not yet learned to read (apparently he thought that was going to be pretty much immediate).
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