First day of school

My son would have you believe that today was the best, most perfect day EVER!

Why?

He started kindergarten today.

He has been so excited since registration that every morning he woke up in anticipation of that day being the first day of school. He got uniforms, a lunch box and a shiny new backpack.

Last week he was so funny, packing his backpack and lunch box with toys and juice boxes, just HOPING that it was finally time for school.

We saved our school supply shopping for this past weekend. Saturday I woke up at 6 am with every intention of getting out before the masses, but the boys slept. Even though I did laundry, washed dishes, and banged around in the kitchen making breakfast, they continued to sleep.

It was 1 pm by the time we left the apartment. It was 105 degrees outside and the crowds were less than cordial. We were nearly run over in the first 10 minutes!

Wal-Mart, the mecca of discount drudgery, was packed. The school supply section of our chosen Wally world was standing room only. Available supplies were dwindling and tempers were flaring! We were hard pressed to find all our supplies, but we put the word out to our fellow late shoppers that we were in need of a few items and if the saw them – let us know!

At 2:30, we were finally able to leave Wal-Mart. Elijah was begging, “Mommy PLEASE! Let’s GO HOME! There are too many people!”

Michael, “WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

By the time we left I felt like crying, but we weren’t done for the day.

My sister called with the location of the back packs and school boxes of the right size. I cringed as I thought of the amount of stuff that was still needed on the supply list, but I had hopes that everything would be at the Wal-Mart in the next little town over.

So – we went home…to recover for a minute to let Mike catch a few winks and to have a snack and an hour and half later we were driving to the next Wal-Mart. We found all the remaining items on our list and celebrated the end of the day with dinner at Cici’s. (The restaurant for starving, cash poor families everywhere.) 😉

Anyway – let’s get back to school. 

This morning Elijah woke up before I could get him up. Bounding out of bed with, “Is today school?!”

“Yes, Elijah…today is school.”

“YAAAAAY!” So jumping up and down he gets dressed, packs a lunch, and can’t sit down.

              First day of Kindergarten!

As a mom this is where I sigh…and pray. I am praying that he keeps this vibrancy about school. I pray that for the next 20 years (I am planning on him being a doctor :)) that he stays excited. That I can find exciting and interesting ways to keep him going back every year and getting that excited in the belly feeling every year!

If he can get excited about learning and stay excited than we win. Score! So, for the next 20 years my job is to find a way to make even the drudgery of the mundane as exciting as blasting rockets.

Good luck to me and to the rest of the parents out there! We are gonna need it!