I'm a Big Kid Now!

X-man started kindergarten today. He had trouble falling asleep the night before because he was so wound up about it. I ended up lying down with him to get him calmed down enough to fall asleep. I hadn't done that since he was 3.

This morning he was so amped and ready to go, he didn't want to eat breakfast. I made him eat his veggie sausage and a few bites of pancake. But because he didn't eat, we were leaving for school too early. So, we ran errands before school. We picked up the books from the two Tolono Public Library book drops in Savoy, then we dropped off the dry cleaning. Then we got to go to the drop off at school. We pulled up, and X-man unbuckled his seat belt, threw on his back pack and jumped out of the car. As we drove around, I peeked over at him standing near his teachers. He was just fine hanging out.

I went to work, and it was much easier to work on my classroom without having him underfoot. Then I ran a bunch of errands and came home to have 45 minutes to myself to get into dry clothes (Hooray that it finally rained) and wait for his bus. I heard it before I saw it. I waved at the driver and she stopped and out came my little man. He was smiling from ear to ear with a school bus with his name and stop pinned to his shirt, but since it was kind of raining we bypassed the hug. He walked with me, holding my hand,  under the umbrella up to the house, where he was greeted with a cookie from Sweet Indulgence. He told me he made a friend in his class who also rides his bus. It's a boy and he likes "banks." (Curious!) He said he gets off in Prairie Fields, so I'm hoping this means he has a bus buddy.

He said the only weird part of his day was the bus because there were a lot of older kids who were very loud. He didn't appreciate that very much. But he said he liked seeing his friends who were in other classrooms.

When I opened his lunch box, I found that he'd eaten almost half of a sandwich, most of the Veggie straws and the two Starbursts I'd put in there. He said he didn't like the carrot sticks, he only likes baby carrots and that he was excited that he got free chocolate milk (even though he had a juice pouch in his lunch).  I explained that the milk wasn't free. But I also loaded up his lunch money account the other day, so I figure--whatever. He was clearly thirsty because he drank both the milk carton and the Capri Sun. He said he needed help opening the milk, but he got the juice pouch okay.

He said he learned that when Ms. Dramado's hand goes up you have to be quiet and raise your hand, too. And that when the stop sign goes up, you have to stop what you're doing and pay attention to the directions. Maybe I need to get a stop sign on a stick and a "quiet, please" sign for at home.

He said he was happy to go back on Thursday, and he hopes that he'll have science and P.E. on that day, because those are the two things he really wants to do in school and he was sad that he didn't get to do them today. But he was glad that he "finally!" got to play in housekeeping. (He's only wanted access to that kitchen since we toured last winter.)

After snack, and a little TV, I took him to the Rec Zone at the Savoy Recreation Center. I don't know if it was the weather or if the program isn't very popular, but we were the only ones there. It's a drop in, which I like because there's no commitment. He ended up playing tennis racket baseball with his own personal staff member, while I went and worked out.

All in hall, it was a pretty quiet and productive day. I'd like to thank MacTroll for taking Lily to the dog park and running the sillies out of her this afternoon before he flew off to California. He also mowed the front weeds for me before it rained and scooped the cat boxes. That was very much appreciated.