A Kindergartener and a Second Grader

Cason has been ready for school to start for weeks.  He was excited for all of it, but especially meeting some other boys.  He's within a few lessons of the end of the reading book he and Jess are working on, so he's reading really well.  I'll ask him what something says, he'll tell me "I don't know, I can't read!"  I tell him "Yes, you can.  Try it."  Usually he immediately reads it, no problem, and then kind of laughs, like "Oh yeah!"  It's like he thinks the lessons they're doing are just some kind of intro to reading, but it won't translate into real life or something.  So funny.

Here's a sample of a lesson from a few weeks ago.

He's been drawing more dragons, and Jess and I keep them all together, and Jess will take them to work to staple them into a book every so often.  Cason made a cover page the other day.

 So cute.   

A weekend or two ago, we worked on getting the school supplies from their lists.  They had a lot of fun picking stuff out, and Cason was getting really excited, as that made it feel more real.  

 

He kept asking me how many more days.  LAST Monday we got to go check the lists, and we were all excited to see they got the teachers we hoped for.  On Wednesday we got to meet them.  Cason was so cute, sitting in his seat and listening attentively.  Mrs. Arnold got out her harmonica once and busted out a little tune.  I could tell from the way Cason's posture changed that he was impressed, and sure enough after she finished he turned around and mouthed "That was cool" to me with the cutest smile-the one he does when he's excited but kind of embarrassed to show it, so he's trying to suppress his smile and it just kind of squishes over to one side.  Haha. 

 He checked out the classroom, and noticed he recognized a classmate from last year's soccer team, which made him happy. 

 He was just as excited, and a little less nervous after the Meet the Teacher.  He kept counting down the days, and I started getting a little sad, but not too bad actually.  I kept focusing on all we needed to do, and how excited he was.  Last night we got everybody bathed and into pajamas, and read books.  We started with The Night Before Kindergarten, and Paige and Cason were both kind of giddy.  When Jess finished reading to them he took Reed so I could get lunches ready.  I've been wanting to make them cute bento lunches, but of course didn't practice at all leading up to it, so I made a VERY mediocre panda lunch.  Neither of them even knew the eggs were supposed to be pandas.  Can't blame them.  I figured I could just slice the nori into whatever shapes I needed, but apparently the tools people use for cutting shapes ARE, in fact, pretty necessary.  Haha!  That's okay, they seemed to like them, whether they knew what animal they were or not.

 

I was still handling it pretty well, and then I went to check on them one last time and when I looked at Cason  sleeping, it hit me.  My days with him home with me all the time are over.  I feel sad and even pretty regretful, because I only get that time with them for a while, and I know I could've done so much better.  Jess was feeling the same way, and he even went out on the back porch after I was asleep apparently, for his own sad time.  :(  But first he made me feel a LITTLE better, reminding me that even if we haven't maximized every moment with him, he's such a happy and good boy, and really the years he will remember are just beginning.  So hopefully we will do better from here.  I'm also a little sad to lose the feeling he brings into our home, while he's gone during the day.  He just adds such a peace and sweetness when he's here.  

I managed to fall asleep though, and in the morning I got up before everyone else to start breakfast.  Like always, Cason SHOT out of bed and Paige needed a bit to wake up.  They were both happy and excited, though, and happy to see pumpkin muffins as part of their breakfast.  :)  

Neely and Reed were NOT too excited this morning.

I don't mean to leave Paige out of this post, just more of a milestone for Cason, since Paige has been there and done that.  She is as excited as ever for school though, and LOVES her teacher, Mrs. Harnisch.

Neely brightened up by the time we were ready to go, and put on her panda backpack, which had "a toy for Reed in case he cries."

When we got there, Cason clearly had butterflies in his stomach but was not a bit sad.  He found his backpack hook,

put his lunch in his cubby,

 

and said goodbye and hugged us with the cutest smile, while Reed slept through it all.

I started to tear up a bit but held it together.

During all this Paige had run off to her class, and we were going to meet her over there.  Apparently we'd lingered because they were almost ready to start when we got there.  She met us in the hall, and we walked her back in for a quick goodbye.  Same as Cason-liiiiittle nervous but mostly happy and excited.

THEN we may have peeked back in at Cason one more time before leaving.  He was playing with some other boys and clearly chatting with them.  :)

Reed slept through the whole dropoff, and finally woke up on our way out.  We had lovely heavenly sunbeams, but he wasn't that into it yet.

Jess knows me well and took the day off today.  I did pretty well until I finished buckling Reed in and went to get in and saw Jess waiting by my side of the car.  I started crying before he even hugged me, and couldn't stop for a couple of minutes.  

After that I did okay again.  The day was actually really good.  We got home and Reed finally woke up enough to enjoy the breakfast he slept through earlier.

Before long he was ready for more sleep though, which didn't bother Jess.

Neely and I had some nice playtime while they slept.  She's hilarious.  Lately our Lego people have to have powers.  One of hers today had "sparkle power", so of course the bad guys get sparkles in their mouths when she uses it.  Haha.  

She did really well today, and played with us and Reed and didn't seem upset about Cason being gone so far.  We shall see though.  He's her best pal, the one who always plays with her and rarely gets mad at her, even when anyone else would.  The other day he actually didn't give in to some demand of hers and she got upset, telling him "We used to be best buddies, but now we're NOT."  (She stole that from a song in Frozen-but I don't think that's how it was meant to be used. Ha!)  Cason didn't even look up from what he was doing, and calmly told her  "Yes we are.  We always have been and we always will be."  Haha.  Best brother ever.

Anyway, before we knew it it was time to pick them up.  Paige had asked us to get her first, so she could say hi to Mrs. Arnold and be a part of picking Cason up after his first day.  So we grabbed her, she hugged her teacher and we went to find Cason.  He looked so happy and said goodbye to his teacher and came to hug us.  We asked if their teachers were mean and they laughed and said "OF COURSE NOT!"

 

We got an after school pic, which Neely had to jump into.  :)

 Reed very obviously missed them.  I didn't notice until I took this that Cason changed his outfits like 2-3 times after school.  Haha.

 I made banana chocolate almond butter smoothies for their afterschool snack, and they got right to their homework.  I snagged a little How to Train Your Dragon coloring book today and gave it to him after school, so he devoted some time to that too.  :)

 They told us about their first days.  Both had great days of course, if you don't count the times Cason's new friend, name to be determined, but for now referred to as "the first one" cut in front of him in line for the slide.  Haha.  For this reason, the friend he calls "the second one" is his favorite friend so far.

He told me "I'm lucky it wasn't just a dream that I had school today.  I LOVE it."  Makes us so happy.

 We went out back to watch the rain, but it stopped right then, so instead we watched them play crazy games on the swingset. 

It's funny to see how the whole dynamic has changed now that they're both school kids.  Ha.