The First Day...

Today was Finn's first day of preschool. Last night I hardly slept at all. I set my alarm for 745 thinking that an hour would be plenty of time. Wrong. Thank goodness my parents were here. Of course, Burgundy, who usually sleeps until 9, woke up at 745 as well because Charlie was in her room and started meowing to come out. So I had to get her up, get myself showered and dressed, get everybody fed and out the door. Somehow I thought an hour would be enough. Well luckily my parents were here and changed/fed baby, and got Finn his breakfast while I was taking a super-fast shower. So Wednesday, I will get up at 7 at the latest. Glad to have learned that lesson while I had help here!

So Cody and I have been building up school for Finn to be this amazing place, full of wonderment. A place where he will learn tons of new things, meet lots of new friends, etc. But while I was doing my hair/makeup, as well as all the night long while not sleeping, all I could think of was all the shitty stuff that happens in school. The cruelty of children, the learning of hard life lessons, embarrassment, awkwardness, etc. The skin and bones of growing up. Of course all these things made me who I am today. But I'm sure I would've turned out ok without having to go through some of those things, too.

Anyway, we took our pictures in front of the peach tree. That will be a good spot to take one every year at the start of school. Heidi came riding by with Brady at that time and got a family shot as well (thanks, Heidi!)

So we were off. I have made a promise to myself to not take Finn to school late. I was late to school pretty much every day of my life and have vowed not to do that to my kids. So we got there early, I took him in, took him in to the bathroom (since he didn't go before we left), hung up his back pack and he got started on a puzzle and off I went. He was perfectly fine and didn't seem to have any problem with me leaving. I didn't even cry. UNTIL I called Cody. And he verbalized every thought I had in my head.

How this is the first day of the rest of his life. How he will now (conceivably) be in school for the next 20 or so years only to either continue with more schooling or to go on to a job. Crazy. Hoping out loud that he will enjoy school and learning. That he will make friends easily. That the inevitable run-ins with horrible children will roll off his back. That he won't be too much of a day dreamer like Cody, nor too much of bookworm like me. Somewhere in the middle would be good. Just all our experiences of our 30+ combined years of school bubbling to the surface in worried-parent style.

But he came out of school 2 1/2 hours later, still my same little Finn. Smiling and cheery and telling me about what he did at school. Still asking for nuggets and ice cream for lunch. But as we came in the house, he went to his room and put his book bag and his shoes neatly away... Maybe school isn't all bad.