First Day of School

Last night Lucas was all excited to go to school. I kept thinking about how I was going to be handing off my baby to a perfect stranger. I went to the grocery store and bought juice boxes and cheese sticks and teared up a little because I was buying them for Lucas' SCHOOL LUNCH! I stayed up to make Lucas the perfect 1st day of school lunch. I made sure to cut his PB&J (made the CORRECT WAY of course) with an apple shaped cookie cutter. I also packed an apple juice, and apple sauce. Don't worry, I also packed a few other things. I made sure his uniform was laid out and his backpack was all packed. Then I went back in his room and made sure he was all covered up. Then I headed to bed, setting my alarm for 7AM taking in consideration that I would need time to snooze and snuggle with Lucas in the morning (since he always climbs into our bed when Curt leaves for work in the wee hours of the morning.)

When the alarm went off I pressed snooze twice and cuddled my sweet boy and then tried to get him out of the bed. He told me he did NOT want to go to school. He did NOT want to meet new friends. He did NOT want to have any fun and he did NOT want to get out of bed. In the back of my mind I was thinking "sounds good to me," but I know that I had to suck it up and be an adult. So I was able to coax Lucas out of bed and into the bathroom to go pee. Then I managed to get him to eat some breakfast and then he crashed on the couch. He told me he was sick and just couldn't go to school because he was covered in germs. Then I mentioned that I had packed him a special lunch in his CARS lunchbox. He started dropping his guard a little. Then I mentioned how there was a special note tucked inside and he got the tiniest bit excited.

Somehow I managed to get him in his uniform and put his shoes and socks on. Suddenly it was like a magic switch turned on and he was suddenly happy and couldn't wait to get to school. He was even happy to pose for pictures.

Even when his mood approved the one thing he was still bummed about was not getting to ride the bus to school. Luckily my car is school bus yellow and I was able to convince him that he had his very OWN school bus to ride in to school. He thought that was very cool and kept saying, "I'm riding in Mommy's bus."

Right before we pulled out of the driveway Curt ended up calling so that he could talk to Lucas before school. Perfect timing! Lucas told him he was excited to go to school because his class had puzzles. Then his Grandma Valeri called and he told her about the puzzles too.

When we got to his school he hopped right out of the car and headed right for his class. All the fear that he had when he first woke up had completely melted away. All the faculty and staff were standing outside the classrooms making sure the kids knew were to go and that all the kids felt welcome.

When we walked in Lucas' class he immediately walked straight over to the wall to hang up his backpack like the other kids were doing. He saw the kids playing with toys at the tables and instantly ran over to play. (Mom who?) I helped him find his name on a table and gave him a kiss goodbye and left. I stood outside the door watching him for a few moments. He never looked up from the table to see where I went. He seemed perfectly fine without me, so I started crying, pulled my sunglasses down over my eyes and walked to my car.

Curt and I both went to pick up Lucas from school today. The car pool line was HORRIBLE but I'm sure it is to be expected on the first day. I guess if you want to get your kid at a decent time you need to line up REALLY early. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Lucas' school ended at 3:50 and it was almost 4:30 before we even laid eyes on our baby. Curt spotted him first. He knew the minute he saw the curls. His teacher walked him to the car and said he did great and had a great first day. I got Lucas buckled in and he burst into tears and said he didn't do so great at school. I told him that his teacher said he did wonderful and that seemed to calm him down. Then he told us that he loved new friends and he got to eat in the cafeteria and carry his own lunch box there. He always says that he wants to go back tomorrow.

Oh, and the ONLY thing he didn't eat out of his entire lunch... the PB&J sandwich. Good thing Jadie LOVES apple shaped sandwiches.