First Day of First Grade

Last Sunday morning my Dane woke up early and joined me for my morning coffee and we had a sweet talk before everyone else woke up. Last weekend I was a tad bit emotional about my big boy going back to school. It may or may not be a little bit because we are preparing to leave our three children for 2+ weeks to travel to the other side of the world to bring our other child home. Because I haven't been the least bit emotional about that.

I so, so love having the kids out of school. I'm not a huge fan of having to keep the school schedule, having Dane there at a certain time in the morning, and absolutely having to be home at 3:30 every afternoon to collect him off the bus. We also have had a very, very busy August. So I snuggled with my big boy, and asked him on Sunday morning, "Do you know what tomorrow is?"

"Umm, church?" he replied.

"...No." The boy shrugged his shoulders. And I realized that he honestly had no idea that school was about to start back up. We had bought backpacks and school supplies, met the teacher, and talked about it several times, and it just snuck up on him. I know the feeling, Dane-o. Your mommy understands.

It snuck up on me too.

But ready or not, the first day of school waits for no one.

I L-O-V-E Dane's teacher this year, Mrs. G (not to be confused with Miss G, his kindergarten teacher). I think he's going to have a great year. The other day he got to use his reward tickets (or something, I haven't quite figured it all out yet) to keep a special stuffed animal with him at his desk for four hours. Stuffed animals are one of Dane's love languages. So far the homework he has brought home has been very easy and basic for him, he's ready to get to the good stuff, and he's a little concerned that all the books in his classroom are "early readers, Mom!"

It's been a great first week of first grade, and I think it will be a big year for the Dane-o.

If we can get him there on time, that is.