First Day of First Grade

It was thoroughly uneventful.  Boring, even.  It's a yearly gateway into gaining maturity and educational excellence and my oldest offspring was completely nonplussed.  I had no choice but to take my cue from him.

Drew got up at the same time he got up practically every day during the summer (7:30), ate his favorite breakfast of eggs on toast (but the toast is on the side) with ice water (don't ask, I'm just the cook), dressed in some new clothes and shiny new sneakers (that he can tie by himself!), and moseyed down the street to his bus stop with his school supplies in his backpack and Mama and brothers in tow.  

He jumped onto his bus and never even looked back.  I sort of just stood there wondering what an attentive and caring mother should do after her oldest just left the nest for the wide world of elementary school.  Meanwhile at the bus stop, another mother of a first grader "had a moment" with tears and shoulders heaving up and down and 50 pictures on her camera to remind her of each step her daughter took onto the bus.  

All I had was Owen crying because Kai poked him in the eye with a sword (someone's lawn flag) that he wrestled, like King Arthur, from the grass.  And Kai was helping himself to someone's leftover beverage, that he found hiding in the community's mailbox, while I was trying to listen to the bus driver's instructions to the waiting parents.  

But that is how it generally goes....Drew slips quietly through the events of life while I try to manage the chaos around me.  As much as I tried to make this day exciting and special, Drew approached it like he does most everything....like a seasoned veteran.  He's not bursting with confidence, shaking with fear or so excited he can't sit still.  He is just Drew.  Despite the fact that this is a new school for him, he just goes quietly about his business and deals with life as it comes.

And then he was home, with his best friend running after him to "ask him what he learned about."  He liked math the best, wants to buy lunch tomorrow, plans to introduce himself to a boy that looked like he could be a friend, and there were 3 kids in class who "weren't quality students."  He wasn't one of them.  


And that is that.