1st Day of School

Today was the boys' first day of the school year.  They were all up early, excited for a new year.  After a pancake breakfast it was clear nerves were high.  Easton was excited to start the 1st grade.  He was eager to get going.  But Christian and Charlie were both a bit nervous.

Christian started telling me over and over that he didn't want to go and wanted to stay home with mom instead.  I reminded him it was ok to feel nervous and that some of the other kids in his class were probably nervous too.  The brave boy of mine started Kindergarten today!

Charlie also started Kindergarten today and showed his nervousness by being hyper-focused on his collection of keys.  Charlie literally has hundreds of keys (like trains, it's one of the items he gets focused on) and today wanted one specific key- "you know mom, the one that's really shiny!"  No, my love.....the majority of your keys are shiny, I really don't know which one you are specifically looking for.  He started focusing on that one key about 10 minutes before we had to leave for school.  I was finally able to convince him to carry a different one in his pocket but he wasn't thrilled about it. 

But we were all able to get packed up.  Sunny got suited up in her service vest and away we went across the parking lot.  Yes, we literally live right across the parking lot from their school.  Kinda handy at times!  When we got into the school everyone was gathering in the gym for the first day.  Sunny and I walked the boys to the gym where they all gave Sunny hugs goodbye for the day (and mom got one hug too).  Since Sunny is not able to accompany Charlie to school all day, we will plan to have her drop him off and pick him up each day.  Our hopes are that her presence in that simple way will help Charlie transition to and from school each day and hopefully he will handle the transitions during the day well enough without her.  

At the end of the school day, Sunny came with me to pick everyone up.  When Charlie spotted us he came running and gave Sunny a big hug.  Knowing the first day was tiring for everyone we had some down time at home where Sunny helped Charlie transition home and keep calm.  

Nothing better than having your dog and your trucks

Charlie's special education teacher assured me Charlie had a great day today and was surprised he did so well.  Great report for a first day!  Now a long weekend (they don't have school tomorrow or Monday) we'll see how a full week goes for everyone!