This school year marked Aidan’s beginning into the public school system as he started Kindergarten. As his mom, it was really sad knowing that on the weekdays I wouldn’t see him from 9am – 3:45pm. Knowing that the school (friends, teachers, etc….) is going to be playing a huge influence in his life now is a scary thing for me since I’ve been the major influence in his life for these first 5 years. I guess kids aren’t the only ones that have problems sharing…so do parents. Aidan was definitely excited to start Kindergarten. The night before his first day of Kindergarten we decided to interview him with some fun questions to mark this big milestone in his life and remember what kind of kid he was.
Then the morning of his first day of Kindergarten came. Mike took the morning off from work and mom baked banana bread with chocolate chips that morning for breakfast. For his lunchbox, Aidan asked to have cereal in his “Cereal to Go” cup along with some fresh blueberries, a juice box, and sugar snap peas. In addition to having lunch, the Kindergarteners at Aidan’s school also need to pack a small healthy snack. So Aidan chose to have pretzels. Then it was time to get ready to go and take pictures! We took pictures of Aidan all the way to the bus stop. Luckily Aidan wasn’t riding the bus by himself for the first time. He neighbor friend, Ashley, was also riding the bus with him and was starting her first day of second grade. So it was comforting for me to know that he would have an older school friend looking out for him. Aidan was thrilled to hear from Ashley that he didn’t have to buckle his seatbelt on the bus and that he could choose to sit in any seat he wanted (he hates buckling his seatbelt in the car). After giving Aidan a kiss, the bus soon showed up. Aidan was obviously excited because he ran and boarded the bus without even looking back. Caleb tried to go on the bus with Aidan too, but I had told Dad earlier to be ready to grab him in case he tried. So as Aidan’s bus pulled away, Dad held Caleb as he yelled, “Aidan! I want bus!” Caleb loves his brother so much. As we all waved goodbye to Aidan on the bus, I felt the tears coming to my eyes. But I fought the tears back as we headed to our car to meet him at the school.
We parked and arrived at the school just as Aidan’s bus was unloading. I ran ahead and was able to tell him to have a good day and that I loved him before the staff ushered him into the school. Then it was back into the car to go home. I probably made it 15 min. in the house without crying, but soon after the tears began to flow, so I hid in the office crying for a bit. Poor Mike didn’t want to go to work until he knew I was going to be o.k. He even tried to cheer me up by jokingly offering me a third kid if I wanted (He’s so sweet!). Even though time will tell if I will take him up on that offer, the joke worked and I felt much better.
