Monday August 24th was Hunter’s first day of Kindergarten. We have all been looking forward and excited about Hunter’s first day of Kindergarten. Every time we drove by Sampson we’d say, “Hunter there’s your big boy school.” That day had finally arrived. He got out of bed pretty easily but was clearly still tired.
Here he is all dressed getting some hugs from Daddy!
He had a honey bun for breakfast and washed it down with a glass of chocolate milk! I know, great breakfast mom! My kids don’t eat a whole lot in the mornings.
This year Cy-Fair has cut the budget and we lost our buses. So we have to either drive him to school or walk. We are less than a mile from Sampson. We drive him for now but when the weather cools down, it will be nice to walk in the afternoon.
Here he is outside and getting in the car (I know, I followed him around all morning with the camera):
We all piled in the car and drove over to Sampson. I got out of the car and took a few more pictures in front of the school (I think he was already tired of the pictures. He has NO idea how monumental a day it was…for BOTH of us):
So the teacher walked him in and my little boy disappeared into a SEA of children. I’m officially a Kindergarten mom. Wow. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. Now he’s all grown up, and I could NOT be more proud of the person he has become. We pulled away and my eyes started to tear up. Mike started talking…about what I don’t remember. But it took my mind off what we had just done. Later that morning Sampson had a Boo Hoo Breakfast for the Kindergarten moms. I took Stone and Brooke and commiserated with other moms about how their mornings went. I thought I handled it pretty well as I really hadn’t cried. Until I saw other people posting pictures of their kids in their classrooms and at their desks on Facebook. Why hadn’t I walked Hunter into his classroom myself and taken pictures there? I didn’t think we were allowed to. Am I a bad mother for just dropping him at the curb the first day at a strange school? I called Mike crying telling him these very thoughts. He just reassured me that Hunter was a big boy and we did the right thing. I hung up the phone and cried some more.
Hunter didn’t leave my thoughts ALL day. I checked the clock constantly wondering how he was doing, what he was doing, was he going to eat his lunch…the clock crawled…and finally 2:45 got here. I decided to get in the car line early (they don’t get released until 3:10). Finally, FINALLY they released the car riders and I saw that little face I had missed SO much in just being gone a few short hours (7 to be exact)!! He got in the car and I was SO EXCITED to see him. The teacher that put him in the car was lucky I didn’t just climb over the seat and shower him with kisses. Hunter is probably glad I didn’t too. I bombarded him with question after question and all I got was “Yes”, “No”, “I don’t know”. I had gone to Target that day and I bought him a special surprise that he just dug into when we got home (it’s just a package of GI Joe underwear – Mike had taken him to see the movie the Sunday before). He was really excited and happy to be home. I was equally happy!
So he settled back into his afternoon routine of a snack and a little Hunter time upstairs in the game room watching a few of his favorite shows. It got really quiet and I went up to check on him. My little angel, after a LONG day of Kindergarten was CRASHED out!
As excited as I was that Monday seemed to go well, Tuesday got here and we started all over. This time I drove Hunter by myself. The teacher came to the car to get him and I asked him, “Do you remember your teacher’s name?” “Ms. Baker” he said (as if I would let him forget – I drilled him all weekend). She helped him onto the curb and said to Hunter, “Do you remember where your class is?” She closed the door and sent Hunter on his way. I was HORRIFIED! Doesn’t she KNOW he’s a KINDERGARTENER and needs HELP this first week? I was looking over my shoulder watching my little Hunter walk in by himself that I almost hit the crossing guard standing to the side of my jeep with the big read STOP sign. I slammed on my breaks and mouthed to her “I’m so sorry”. I turned back around only to see a group of kids walking into the school and Hunter was gone. I cried all the way home. I walked in the door and Mike asked me what was wrong. I just told him Hunter had gone in all by himself and it just hit me how little he looked going in with all the “big” kids. Tuesday I seemed to feel worse. I think the adrenaline of the first day of school was gone and reality had finally set in. I had nothing to do Tuesday so keeping my mind off of it was hard. I didn’t do much but piddle around all day. I did go to Target to buy Hunter a new pair of tennis shoes for school. Poor thing! I sent him to school in shoes that were too small for him. When he got home from school, we ended up taking them back because I had bought him the exact same pair of Transformer shoes he had on, just a bigger size. 12 1/2 to be exact. “I’m over Bumblebee” were his exact words. So we settled on some cool black “bad” Spiderman tennis shoes.
The rest of the week has gone pretty smoothly. We are carpooling with the neighbors across the street now. Thursday and Friday when I took Hunter to school I also took Griffin. It was MUCH MORE reassuring to see him walk into the school with Griffin! They are buddies and will definitely watch out for each other.
So here’s to a successful first week of Kindergarten (Hunter and I both survived) and a new chapter in our lives! Sampson watch out – Hunter Mancuso has arrived!
Bonnie's Blog
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