First Day of School - 2012!

Hooray for the first day of school!

 The first day of third grade.  Just look at him - Spencer's an old pro at this school stuff.

The first day of Kindergarten.

Josh is not an old pro at this.  He wanted to misbehave and wouldn't let me take a normal picture of him.

 Ironically, this is normal Joshie behavior.

Just look at those Mario t-shirts.  *cringe*  But the boys loved them, so that's what's important, right?

Another failed picture attempt.  At this point I was a little nervous about how Josh would act when I dropped him off at school.  Earlier he had refused to get dressed and was hiding under his comforter.  I asked him if we should say a prayer to help make him brave and he agreed to that.  (Obviously, this helped!)

There we go!  Hooray for the first day of Kindergarten!

 

Spencer heading off to the bus stop.  Cole must have forgotten last year's routine already because he was quite concerned when Spencer left.  He refused to come inside because he was "waiting for Spencer". 

Josh wanted me to take him to school, I think mainly because he was concerned about how he would find his classroom.  He saw all the kids get off the bus and saw that there were lots of teachers there to help the Kindergarteners find their classrooms.  I took him into his class, helped him get situated, gave him a hug and kiss good-bye... and just about lost it. 

By this point he wasn't paying attention to me anymore and was ready to start the day, so I quickly left so he wouldn't see me.  I'm not generally very emotional in situations like this (although, apparently, I am), so my tears took me by surprise.  You'd think I'd have gotten it all out of my system with Spencer, right?  Nope.  I wasn't sad or scared or anything; just emotional.  Worried maybe?  Hoping he was prepared enough, and that he wouldn't be scared or hurt or sad.  

Hey, it's a big deal to leave a kid at school all day.  I mean, you take care of him pretty much 24/7 for 5+ years and then all of a sudden you entrust some basic stranger to take care of your baby for eight hours a day, five days a week.  That's a pretty big deal and very worthy of getting emotional over, that's all I'm sayin'.

*sniff*sniff*