From Sub-Blogger, Mommy. (I officially get to post on a few topics...birth of a child...a momism here and there...and definitely the first day of school for my first born).
On August 27, 2012, the first of the Mitchell Men started school. It is so strange to see a red and white "VISD," which, around these parts stands for Van Independent School District. I grew up in another VISD with a red and white high school. Guess I was meant for this town.
But back to the day at hand. I got tons of questions leading up to the big day about how I thought I would be on the first day of school. I honestly had no idea how to answer those questions. Would I be a mess? Would I be happy? It could go either way. (*side note, Ted was totally fine. In fact, I think I noticed a little extra spring in his step. "One day closer to getting them off the payroll." He talks big.)
One thing I knew for sure, I wanted to be totally fine. For Miles. He was SO excited about kindergarden. We went to supply night (formerly known as Meet The Teacher...when did that change???) Miles lucked out with Ms. Smith. She's new to the school, but not new to teaching. There are 6 kinder classes in this tiny town, so Miles and his buddies are pretty split up. But, he was excited to meet new friends.
Ms. Smith sent home a note to be read the night before the first day of school. It had "do not peak" written on it, so we waited until Sunday night. Inside was the sweetest poem about how sometimes it can be hard to get a good night's sleep when you are excited about a new adventure. So the note came with "magic dust" to ensure good sleep and good dreams. Ms. Smith ended the poem by telling Miles that she needed some magic dust too because she was so excited to see him tomorrow. :)
Miles loved it, and we carefully sprinkled the magic dust under his pillow.
We got up the next morning, got dressed, and we took pictures outside the front door (a tradition I hoped to start each year...see Max's post below). Then we hopped in the car and headed to school. Miles with his backpack, me with my camera...ready for what was coming. We bumped into cousin Gaven and took our "first day cousin photo" (a tradition I hope they'll let me continue through college). ;) We went to class and got settled in. I snapped photos, smiled and thought "good job mama. No tears." I hugged my guy and left while we were both smiling. I even posted a Facebook status update about how there were no tears for this mama and about how this was a joyful day, and it was.
I patted myself on the back and headed to Sonic for a caffineated reward. While I waited for my drink, I thought I'd scroll through my pictures. I turned on my fancy camera, clicked on the arrow to scroll through, and saw this message: "No memory card." WHAT?!? Then came the tears. Lots of them. I remembered that I had sent in my camera to be serviced, and I had removed the memory card (which I never do) as requested by Nikon prior to sending it in. As I snapped each photo, I still got that few second frozen shot of each photo, so I just did not realize that I had no memory card in. I took the "night before school photos" with my iphone. I was so bummed. I called Ted crying. I called Mom crying. How could I have zero pictures from my first born's first day? Total Mom fail.
So, I did what any picture-obsessed mother would do...I turned the car around, grabbed a memory card, and headed back to school. I hoped Miles' teacher would understand (and that Miles wouldn't be too embarassed. Thank goodness he is 5 and still loves his Mommmy hanging out with him!). Mrs. Smith was awesome. So, we took "first day pictures, take 2." Ta da:
This was supposed to be on our front porch (why yes I did haul this board up to the school to get this photo.) In case you cannot read it, it says he wants to "dig for gold" when he grows up. attaboy.
Please ignore the splotchy Mom in this photo. I promise I held it together the first time.
This is Mrs. Smith explaining Miles' crazy mother to the class. :)
But how cute is this classroom? There's a special loft just for reading.
And thankfully we saw Gaven's class that morning too so we could retake the first day cousin photo.
Miles' desk (okay this used to be his desk. He may or may not sit in a desk right up front by Mrs. Smith now since he is unable to stop talking in class. He definitely gets that from his Daddy).
So, we survived Kinder first day...and first few months I might add. Miles loves it. Mommy survived. Daddy is still celebrating the "one less kid in daycare" pay raise.
~Miles' Mommy
