Thoughts on our FIRST first day

So today was our first, first day of school. So far things are going just fine. Nate was very excited to go today. He got up earlier than normal, and got dressed right away. The problem is that he goes to a late school, so we then had about 2 hours to wait until it was time to go to the bus stop. So we hung out, watched a little TV, listened to a little music. We sat down to breakfast together, which we never do, but I'm excited to start doing. At breakfast (yogurt and cinnamon toast) we had our morning prayer and that is going to be our new time to do scripture study. After I said the prayer, Nate said that he wanted to say the prayer, so he said a sweet little first day of school prayer. The interesting thing was that it included things that Jesse had talked about in his blessing for Nate last night. It was nice to know that Nate had been paying attention.
Nate was very excited to go to the bus stop. If you notice from this picture to the next, there was one thing that we forgot- his name tag. I was pretty much to the bus stop, which isn't that far away, when I realized we'd forgotten. So I left Nate and Graham there with some other parents, and I ran back to the house (With Olivia strapped to me) and grabbed his name tag. I made it back with plenty of time to spare. You can see in the picture that it was too sunny to look at the camera. Pretty excited waiting for the bus!

Here is the proof that I sent my child to his first day ever of real school without combing his hair. It's not like I ever comb his hair, it looks the same if we comb it or if we don't, it goes where it wants. But I sat there all morning thinking that I needed to wet down his hair and get it to lie flat in that one spot. When I got to the bus stop I looked at him and thought, oops! Oh well, he won't care.

So I have many friends who are sending their child to Kindergarten this year, and all of the friends that I have from my mother's group are sending their first child this year. Some of my friends are sad beyond belief. Some of them are just so happy to get rid of their child for the school year. I guess I'm kind of in between. I will miss having him here, he's such a good kid to have around, and so goofy, and always good for having a good time. I worry for him, will he do well, will he be smart enough, will he make any friends, will he not do the embarrassing things that he does at home. (To clarify, they would only be embarrassing if he did them in public.) But I'm also excited for him. This is such a big step for him, and it's an important one too. He gets to have so many new experiences that will help to shape who he becomes. He will get to see something other than the inside of our house on a daily basis. It's hard to be sad for me when I think of how great this will be for him.

Graham is doing OK. This morning I had a RS Presidency meeting that took most of the morning, so we didn't really have too much time to sit around and be lonely. Although, Graham seemed to miss Nate even before we got back to our house from dropping him off at the bus. The next two days Nate has off of school due to the staggered start for Kindergarten, and we'll go and do some fun things those days. Thursday Olivia has a dr apt, and Friday I have a few other apts going on, so it'll be next week before we have a regular day at home without Nate.

So there you have it, Nate's first day of Kindergarten is almost done. They are probably getting ready to get on the buses right now at school. It's sometimes weird to think of him having this whole other life without me there. And I'm not going to lie, it has been nice to have two napping children with Nate gone this afternoon. So anyway, I guess this is us starting our next chapter in life.