First Day of the Rest of My Life as a Mom...

Monday I hit a milestone. We officially became a part of the public school system (as if Scott working in it does not count.) I have a lot of feelings and emotions about this that I will mostly spare you from, as I have already written them in my journal. Just a summary: Is he ready? Am I ready? Have I taught him enough so that he can choose the right and withstand the temptations of the devil???? Too much...that was an over-share. Anyway, most of my tears were spilled Sunday night after I put him to bed, so Monday I was fairly tearless (which according to Scott means that tears may enter the eyes, but not spill from them). I wish I could say the same for Asher...

I'll start from the beginning:



This is Taz eating his over-kill of a breakfast - french toast sticks, scrambled eggs with cheese, apple slices and an extra large glass of chocolate milk. This is a lot for a kid that is used to eating cold cereal. What can I say? I wanted his brain to be nourished to the fullest extent so that he would be extra alert...I heard eggs are good for this. He only ate the apples...

We got dressed and ready to go, then it was picture time! Tradition says that you MUST take a picture of your children on the front porch on the first day of school (growing up in my family, it was jumping OFF the porch - an excellent actions shot...our porch is like seven feet tall, so my kids will not be experiencing this tradition).





As you can see, east facing porch = way to bright for pictures with eyes open. We moved the photo shoot into the house.

It was about this time that the tears from Ash started. He kept saying, " I am going to scoo, too" I kept trying to explain to him that he is too little, but in a few years it would be his turn. He got a sparkle in his eye and said, "I be wight back." He came back and said, "Now I go to scoo." I, again said, "No buddy, just Tazzy." Asher then turned around, revealing what he had gone in search of. He said, "But I have a backpack." I felt so bad. I let him join in the pictures, and told him that today he would get a special school at home with Mommy. Taz said, "Yeah, Asher, you get to have 'Home School'." Never thought I'd home school my kids.

I like to call the next few pictures, "Monkey see, monkey do." It is a term we use quite frequently at our house:



Taz made a silly face...



Asher made a silly face...

Taz stood weird by his backpack...



Asher stood weird by his backpack...



Flexing muscles...



This is for Uncle Brandon - you can't really tell, but this is the "
leg slap"




I hate that Taz looks so grown up in this picture, but he sure is a handsome dude!



Ash is really trying his best to be happy.



One last picture of my non-kindergarten going boys...and then it was on to school.



We walked to school with our neighbors, because we don't live very far away. Actually, the kids ran. They were excited! I took Taz to the special kindergarten playground. He went down the slide a few times, and then the bell rang. The teachers came outside and told the kids to line up by the wall.



Then Taz's teacher said, "Okay! Wave goodbye to mom!" They waved, and then they were gone.



I was in shock. All I could think was, "What? GOODBYE?!? No going into the classroom to make sure that he gets his backpack hung up and listens to his teacher and is nice to his classmates and chooses good friends...Just 'Goodbye, mom'." I actually thought of peeking in through the window, but the blinds were shut. It's almost as if they knew...

This is the point where the tears made a brief appearance, although according to the rule of Scott, I did not actually "cry." I am SO glad my friends were there to walk home with so I could take my mind off of it.

As promised, when Ash and I got home, we had "home school." We looked at flash cards and sang the "alphabet" song. We sang the "weather" song and colored a picture. All of it was just too much for Ash. About eleven o'clock, I found him like this:



Hard life!



When it was time to pick Taz up, my neighbor, Tanya, was nice enough to watch Asher so that I could take Taz to lunch. I stole this idea from a friend of mine. I just wanted to make his day really special. I went to the school and stood just outside the kindergarten doors. Strangely, at this point, I was the ONLY mom with a camera...



I told him that he could pick anywhere to go to lunch (except Taco bell - blah). He thought maybe IHOP, then I told him about the Mayan, and he thought that sounded good. We drove clear across town and it was closed. So, we headed back toward our house to go to IHOP. On the way there, we passed Gardner Village, and Taz decided that sounded good. Later he told my sister that it was "Amazing." It was so much fun having one on one time with him. we talked about school and we did the word search on the kids menu. He ordered steak for lunch, which is his favorite, along with fries and root beer, and he did it all by himself. when he wanted a refill, he politely asked for one. When our dessert came out (a hot fudge brownie sundae - yum!), he had about three fries and four bites of steak left, he said to the waitress, "Can I please have a box?" It was so cute. After that, we went to the candy store to get something to take home to Asher. Taz told me that it was the best "Mom and kid date" ever. I had such a good time, I think it is something I will try to do more often.



Some of the highlights from Taz's First Day of Kindergarten:

*He got half way across the monkey bars THREE TIMES!

*He met a new friend and they made up a song about Scooby-Doo. They sang it at recess and in class and then Taz got moved to a table all by himself.

*They spelled there names with pretzels and then got to eat them.

*He got to tell the class that steak is his favorite food.

*His Mom survived.