As one of you once said to me, I've been living a blogpost this morning...
No, this isn't the story of how I cried and, of course, Luke didn't, when I dropped him off for his first day of school. No, this isn't about how lonely it was to eat lunch without him for the first time today. That's all true, but that's not it.
The morning started off pretty well. I remembered that he's not allowed to wear open-toed shoes and made sure he had socks and sneakers on. I had something other than a peanut butter sandwich to pack (no PB allowed at his school...sigh), plus remembered to pack a little note with his lunch. I even got a few pictures of the proud kindergartener with backpack and lunchbox and all. So far, so good.
I woke Eliza up, poor girl, just like every morning of preschool last year (why she chooses to sleep only in the morning and not at night I'll never understand). Got everybody in the car with time to spare. Luke almost forgot his backpack (with snack inside), but I caught him before it was too late. So far, great.
Getting in and out of school is less than simple with Eliza. Because of an as-yet undelivered wheelchair (since March--arrgh!), we're using a jogging stroller to cart her around for now. The school, of course, has steps up to the entrance, so we need to use an alternate entrance and wind our way through a small maze of very narrow hallways (with not-so-narrow jogger) clogged with hoardes of first-day kids and moms and dads and siblings-who-don't-need-wheelchairs to find the classroom. Pit stop on the way for our first adventure: Eliza decided to christen the school carpet (along with her clothes and mine). This will come as no surprise to those of you who know Eliza. What may surprise you is that I decided to give her a big stomach-full of water just before we left the house. Why? Chalk it up to sleep-deprived consideration of the relative merits of hydration versus vomit-free clothing. Wrong choice, as now we have neither. Watery vomit contained and cleaned up, and we're moving again. So far, not too bad.
Next stop: required hand-washing at the bathroom. Too, too many people crowding the boys' room for me to maneuver the aforementioned jogger, so we stop at the girls' room. I'm a girl, after all. The other little girl washing her hands is none too thrilled to find Luke there. Oh, well. Clean hands, and we're ready to move again. So far, so close...
More narrow hallway navigation and we arrive at the line of kindergarten cubbies, which, by the way, make the hallway that much narrower. Find Luke's cubby: check. As I set his lunchbox into the cubby, it strikes me that it feels awfully light...no drink. And there, as a friend of mine likes to say, goes Mom of the Year 2008. So, so close.
No drink? Impossible! My mom would never have packed me a lunch with no drink! No, she of the homemade Halloween costumes and Christmas presents couldn't possibly forget something so essential. I forgot my lunch plenty of times, but Mom? Never. But I did it. Day one, and no drink. Now surely he could just get a drink from the fountain or even use a paper cup from the teacher...but I can't be that mom. That mom who forgets a drink on day one. No, I have standards to live up to, and high ones, too (thanks, Mom). My head begins to swim: drop Luke off (without mentioning the missing drink, of course), swim upstream again with Eliza, get her back in the car, drive home, get a drink, drive back to school, get Eliza back in the jogger (all before 9:45 when the school doors are locked), navigate the hallways again, drop off the drink, and slink off in hopes that my deficiency won't be noticed by the all the other organized-and-certainly-didn't-forget-the-drink moms.
So a teary (mine, not his) goodbye hug and I'm off to the races. Navigate the maze, trek back to the car, begin the process of loading Eliza in...and what do I see but an empty water bottle on the floor of the car. How long has it been there? Not sure. Last washed? Who knows. But Eliza's still in the jogger and the school door's still unlocked and the bathroom has a sink...Never mind it's not the special new water bottle I bought him for the first day. Never mind it's a bottle bearing the logo of my husband's school, which Luke is not attending, after much difficult discussion and some disappointment. Never mind that it may be germy. No, it's not the water bottle I would have chosen in my happy-go-lucky first day of school world. But it's here...and it holds water. So, so good.
And there's always Mom of the Year '09...
After-school update: He reports that he didn't drink his water at all, not one drop, because--get this--he couldn't open the top. I kid you not.
No, this isn't the story of how I cried and, of course, Luke didn't, when I dropped him off for his first day of school. No, this isn't about how lonely it was to eat lunch without him for the first time today. That's all true, but that's not it.
The morning started off pretty well. I remembered that he's not allowed to wear open-toed shoes and made sure he had socks and sneakers on. I had something other than a peanut butter sandwich to pack (no PB allowed at his school...sigh), plus remembered to pack a little note with his lunch. I even got a few pictures of the proud kindergartener with backpack and lunchbox and all. So far, so good.
I woke Eliza up, poor girl, just like every morning of preschool last year (why she chooses to sleep only in the morning and not at night I'll never understand). Got everybody in the car with time to spare. Luke almost forgot his backpack (with snack inside), but I caught him before it was too late. So far, great.
Getting in and out of school is less than simple with Eliza. Because of an as-yet undelivered wheelchair (since March--arrgh!), we're using a jogging stroller to cart her around for now. The school, of course, has steps up to the entrance, so we need to use an alternate entrance and wind our way through a small maze of very narrow hallways (with not-so-narrow jogger) clogged with hoardes of first-day kids and moms and dads and siblings-who-don't-need-wheelchairs to find the classroom. Pit stop on the way for our first adventure: Eliza decided to christen the school carpet (along with her clothes and mine). This will come as no surprise to those of you who know Eliza. What may surprise you is that I decided to give her a big stomach-full of water just before we left the house. Why? Chalk it up to sleep-deprived consideration of the relative merits of hydration versus vomit-free clothing. Wrong choice, as now we have neither. Watery vomit contained and cleaned up, and we're moving again. So far, not too bad.
Next stop: required hand-washing at the bathroom. Too, too many people crowding the boys' room for me to maneuver the aforementioned jogger, so we stop at the girls' room. I'm a girl, after all. The other little girl washing her hands is none too thrilled to find Luke there. Oh, well. Clean hands, and we're ready to move again. So far, so close...
More narrow hallway navigation and we arrive at the line of kindergarten cubbies, which, by the way, make the hallway that much narrower. Find Luke's cubby: check. As I set his lunchbox into the cubby, it strikes me that it feels awfully light...no drink. And there, as a friend of mine likes to say, goes Mom of the Year 2008. So, so close.
No drink? Impossible! My mom would never have packed me a lunch with no drink! No, she of the homemade Halloween costumes and Christmas presents couldn't possibly forget something so essential. I forgot my lunch plenty of times, but Mom? Never. But I did it. Day one, and no drink. Now surely he could just get a drink from the fountain or even use a paper cup from the teacher...but I can't be that mom. That mom who forgets a drink on day one. No, I have standards to live up to, and high ones, too (thanks, Mom). My head begins to swim: drop Luke off (without mentioning the missing drink, of course), swim upstream again with Eliza, get her back in the car, drive home, get a drink, drive back to school, get Eliza back in the jogger (all before 9:45 when the school doors are locked), navigate the hallways again, drop off the drink, and slink off in hopes that my deficiency won't be noticed by the all the other organized-and-certainly-didn't-forget-the-drink moms.
So a teary (mine, not his) goodbye hug and I'm off to the races. Navigate the maze, trek back to the car, begin the process of loading Eliza in...and what do I see but an empty water bottle on the floor of the car. How long has it been there? Not sure. Last washed? Who knows. But Eliza's still in the jogger and the school door's still unlocked and the bathroom has a sink...Never mind it's not the special new water bottle I bought him for the first day. Never mind it's a bottle bearing the logo of my husband's school, which Luke is not attending, after much difficult discussion and some disappointment. Never mind that it may be germy. No, it's not the water bottle I would have chosen in my happy-go-lucky first day of school world. But it's here...and it holds water. So, so good.
And there's always Mom of the Year '09...
After-school update: He reports that he didn't drink his water at all, not one drop, because--get this--he couldn't open the top. I kid you not.
5 comments:
daniele,
great first day story, but i bet Luke never knew the difference. isn't it weird not having them there at lunch? i got teary eyed when packing camryn's first lunch last week thinking about eating it in the big lunch cafeteria at school without me there.
emme
I LOVE IT!!! Hormonal as I am and loving your kids as much as I do, I cried reading and thinking about Luke starting school as I read your blog, wishing I were there to share in this with you guys.
If you don't get Mom of the Year, no one does. My kids barely get out of the door with their clothes on, and if I had to pack a lunch...we'd be in huge trouble. Did I mention that it never even occurred to me to do valentines for Calvin last February? I felt like a jerk when he walked out of school with a bag full of candy and cards.
Really, I am so relieved to get rid of my kids these days, that it didn't even occur to me to cry or to take pics on Hobbes' first day. You definitely win the award for doing all of that while you were sleep-deprived and managing Eliza in her huge stroller.
Well, I was out of the running for Mom of the Year '08 way back in February of '06. Way to stay in the running through the first half of the year!!!
OK...thanks for the kudos...but I was NO Mom of the year! The great thing is, you were just a kid and don't remember all the terrible mistakes (like forgetting to pick up your friend for pre-school when it was my turn. THREE TIMES!!) You will get my vote everytime! Love Mom/Nana
Post a Comment