Evan started Kindergarten on Tuesday Sept. 3rd, and the Friday before, all four of us went to his Open House to meet his teacher and see his classroom. His teacher's name is Mrs. Lyle and she has an assistant, Mrs. Page. They were both very nice and helpful and Evan seemed kind of excited about starting his new adventure. We even learned that a little girl he knows well from pre-school, Aida, was going to be in his class and would be riding the bus to daycare with him after Kindergarten each day. All of this made me feel much better about he whole ordeal of sending him off to public school. ( I think I probably started dreading this on the day he was born!) So Tuesday morning rolled around and I'd made a sign for Evan to hold up for my First Day of School photos:
We do not have bus transportation to our elementary school because we technically live in the 'walking zone.' However, we must be right at the distance cut-off because it's about a 15 minute or so walk to the school from our house - for ME- and it would take Evan much longer. I would never allow him to walk there by himself anyway and I don't envision us ever getting out the door early enough to walk there together. Besides, he'd probably be ready to pass out from exhaustion and we'd both be a complete sweaty mess by the time we got there...and I have to go to work afterwards. So the plan is for me to drive him to school and then go on to work, and Tom will take Dylan to preschool.
Evan was happy and excited that morning when we took pictures on the front porch.
He loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so I surprised him with a new Turtles 3-D backpack a week before school started.
He was animated and happy on our first drive to school, but as we approached the parking lot, we discovered what a nightmare the first day of school is in regards to traffic. The parking lot of the school was designed horribly and there's only one way in and out for both cars and buses, and three separate guarded cross-walks cutting across the one way in and out. When I got to the front of the non-signlaed left turn lane and was trying to turn into the parking lot, we sat and sat and noone let us in and the traffic flow kept being backed up by the guards at the crosswalks. Finally I gave up and did a u-turn and parked across the street from the school at our neighborhood playground. Evan was skipping along the sidewalk, still happy and excited. We walked into the school and I let him lead the way to ensure me that he knew where to go. Then we got to the door of his classroom and ....................SCREECH........... he froze in his tracks at the doorway and refused to walk in the room. I literally had to slide him into the doorway. He immediately buried his face into my skirt and grabbed onto my leg with claws fully extended! Mrs. Lyle noticed us and swooped over and started talking to him and he finally unburied his face and looked at her so I started stepping away and then he grabbed me again and hugged me tight. I had to bite hard on my lip to keep from bawling. I finally just had to walk out of there and had to deal with an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach all the way to work. It was not a good feeling to get to the office and sign on to our daycare webcam and not be able to see him either. However, Tom was able to go to the school at the 10:50 am dismissal time (we only have "half day Kindergarten" in our county) and was waiting out front to surprise him before he got on the daycare bus. Evan was so happy to see his Dad. He said Kindergarten was good but he'd been a little scared and really missed his Mama. (Awww!!) Here are the pictures Tom took:
Waiting For The Bus
On The Bus
Our daycare sent me an email to announce Evan's arrival there but I already knew he'd made it because I'd been watching his empty "After Kindergarten" classroom on the webcam and saw him as soon as he came in the door. It was such a relief to see that he was still in one piece and appeared to be happy! :) So I guess the "First Day of Kindergarten" was a bit rough on both of us but every day since has been a bit better and he seems to be learning some cool things. He was demonstrating his addition and subtraction skills at the dinner table the other night and I was really impressed with what he knows already!
