School Boy

Off he goes.....
Yes... that time has come. As I type, Eric Lewin is at his first day of preschool. He got on this bus without tears or pushing and went off to his first day of school. I am proud (and surprised!) to announce that I was able to avoid tears myself.

But let's take a step back...

Here is my little guy all ready to roll with his new Batman lunchbox in hand. Lunch today was peanut butter nutella "uncrustable" sandwich on whole wheat; banana (to which he said - do I really have to eat that? Answer - yes); fish pretzels; apple juice box. For an afternoon snack, he has a mix of almonds, peanuts and yogurt cheerios.

You will notice that his left eye looks goofy. He got bit by some kind of bug outside last night (darn these Virginia bugs!). He woke up saying he thought he had pink eye and needed to stay home from school. I reminded him of the bug. He replied that he thought he'd still like to stay home from school. I had him climb into my lap and give me a snuggle for a few minutes. I reminded him that it was ok to be nervous. That seemed to do the trick. Little did he know I was talking mostly about MY nerves.

Eric is on bus 25. This badge will remind everyone of that fact for a couple weeks so that the kid does not wind up across town or something.

We arrived at our stop which is one house down on the corner. He was all ready to go with his tried-and-true Jay Jay backpack. Jay Jay is apparently not too babyish, unlike the Thomas lunchbox that he was WAY too old for. In that backpack, he has a clear plastic case, a pack of regular #2 pencils, 2 bottles of elmers glue, safety scissors, a compostion notebook, and a folder for papers.
The bus arrived (nearly) on schedule. There were a whole gaggle of kids there, including 3 kindergardeners, a third grader, and 2 "big boys" who were way to cool to stand with us. Each new student had an entourage, including moms, dads, and in one case, a grandma. Each family was armed with a camera, of course.

Eric climbed right on and took a seat in the row behind the busdriver, just like I had told him to. Good boy. The bus driver sped off, screeching his wheels as he ran away with our children. Ok, maybe not, but he did hit the road without allowing for an entire photo shoot. Partly to avoid drama and partly to actually get the kids to school on time, I suppose.

And so it begins. Homework. New friends. Bullies. Packed lunches. Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. All that good (and bad) stuff. Where does the time go?