First Days and New Traditions

Yesterday was Skyler’s first day of Kindergarten. Can you even believe it? Well, maybe you can, but I can’t! How did my little 5 pound, 5 ounce baby boy turn into a handsome, intelligent kindergartener? It’s like it happened overnight. It seriously feels that way. I can vividly remember bringing him home from the hospital. Where does time go? That’s the one thing I wish I could harness and slow down sometimes.

Skyler is our oldest son. Sending a child off to school is totally new to me. I didn’t want to miss any moments of his first day. He was complaining that I was taking so many photos of him, but I warned him that I would never be able to get this day back and I wanted to make sure it was well documented. Poor kid. It’s not his fault he was born into a family with a crazy Mom. I promise, no children were harmed while these photos were taken. I shot these all without a flash! Hahaha! I kid. I kid!

I took a ton of photos of Skyler. I am planning on taking photos of all the boys on their first day of school each year. I remember going through the same torture when I was little. Actually, my Mom was really good. She didn’t take nearly the amount of photos we take today. That’s the blessing (or the curse if you are a little kid) of digital cameras!

Here are some photos of my handsome, adorable, incredibly old looking little man! It’s funny that he suddenly looks so much older just because he’s in kindergarten. Try not to look too close at these. They will melt your heart!

Everyone had to get in on the photo taking. Can you tell we went with a camo first day of school theme? All the boys had some camo on!!! I just love camo.

Skyler and Jackson were both super excited about waiting for the bus. My boys just love school buses. Everyone time we see one they have to point it out. Look at how patiently they were waiting. . .

Once Skyler got on the bus, my heart sank a bit. My little boy is on the bus. By himself. Oh, I want to cry just thinking about it. Is he even old enough to ride the bus? I had to set aside my apprehensions and let him go out to explore the world. It’s his time to learn. To make new friends. To gain independence. To thrive. Skyler, don’t forget about me. Remember me? I’m your mama. Make sure you come and visit me every once in awhile. Call to check in. Oh, what? He’s just going to Kindergarten you say? Well thank goodness because I am not ready for anything more than that right now!

I missed him so much, I met him at school. Okay, I’m not a psycho parent. I really just wanted to get some photos of him in his classroom. I didn’t hang out for very long. I just wanted to make sure he made it to his classroom safely. He was instructed to write his name. Then he had to complete a few more tasks before he could go and play on the rug. That’s where I left him. . .

We were so excited for Skyler to get home that we arrived at the bus stop 10 minutes early. Jackson was entertaining himself and being silly like normal.

Note to self: Three year olds aren’t super patient. Next time we won’t go so early. Look how focused he was. . .

It’s seems like this day snuck up on me. I mean, I’ve only had five and a half years to prepare for it. I’m not sure why I wasn’t more organized. I really wanted his first day of school to be special. I wanted to start some new traditions since he’s my first baby to go to school. I contacted an adorable client of mine who has a first grader and asked her what she does. Thanks Leslie for all the help and great ideas. I had this cute blue tub in my office. I always pick these up from the dollar section at Target. They are normally $2.50 and they make excellent “gift bags.” I usually vinyl the child’s name on it or a cute design. Thankfully, I had this on hand. It was perfect to hold all of Skyler’s favorite goodies. We have been saying “Kindergarten Rocks” the whole summer. I saw an awesome decal at JoAnn’s and I was going to make Skyler a shirt with that on it. Unfortunately, when I went back to get it, it was gone, but I thought it was so cute that I keep using that message. Kindergarten does ROCK!!! This was waiting for Skyler when he got off of the bus.

I also read a post on FUN First Day of School Traditions and loved the idea of a big cookie. You know that I love to bake and I can pretty much create an excuse. Since I wasn’t prepared, let’s just say the cookie tasted great, but the frosting was just slopped on. Next year, I will take my time to pipe on a beautiful message. Skyler was so excited this cookie was all for him. He was kind enough to share though!!!

Well, there you have it. A recap of Sky’s first day! We survived without a tear shed from anyone. I’m so excited for him and proud. He’s going to be a force to reckoned with. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he simple says “An engineer” (of course this was encouraged by his Daddy). You can be anything you want to be! Go get ’em Skyler!