The First Day Of First Grade

I am soooo excited for Cole to start the first grade!  I have a lot less apprehension going into first grade than I did with kindergarten.  I know Cole is going to have a great time; he's especially excited about getting two recesses and eating lunch at school.  (Oh, the priorities of a first grader!)   But what's really weird about this year is what I'm experiencing mentally, and I'll refer to this as the "I'm a real mom" phenomenom.  I really feel like a real mother having a first grader.  He needs me to pack lunches for him!  That is so motherly.  Moms make packed lunches and send their kids off to school.  And now that's what I do too!

Of course, even though I'm excited for his new adventures to begin, I'm going to miss Cole so much.  Not only do I love him for the obvious maternal reasons, but I also really like him.  I enjoy his company.  He makes me laugh regularly with his funny ways.  He's also very loving and thoughtful towards me.  For example, if I happen to say out loud, but to no one in particular that my feet are cold, he will run upstairs to get me socks.  He often brings me Diet Cokes and water in the event that I might be thirsty.  He brings me breakfast sometimes on Saturday mornings when Chad lets me sleep in.  He says sweet things to me, like the other day when he was giving me a hug and he said that he wants to feel my warmth forever.  Oh my gosh.  And he tells me about 25 times a day that he loves me.  I will really miss those things.  But I'm so excited for Cole to learn new things and grow into the 7 year old that he's about to be.  I'm so happy for him!

We began our school preparation by going on a "date", just the two of us, to pick out his new pjs for the night before school, and his lunchbox (because he needs one, that I must pack, with food for him, because I am a real mom).  Now I put "date" in quotations because what I learned on this particular trip is that he doesn't find shopping to be a fun "date".  I thought a little time away from the little boys would be welcome, no matter what.  But this is not true.  Cole didn't want to look at all the different pajamas and try them on to see which ones looked best.  He grabbed the first "cool" Ben 10 pjs he could find, and that was that.  (The pajamas are hideous, just like last year's.)  He didn't want to walk around with different lunch boxes to see which ones were more comfortable or looked more stylish.  He took one look at an Iron Man one, and that was good enough.  All in all, this date took about ten minutes.

Doesn't he look thrilled and elated for our date?

Here is our collection of all the school supplies required for a first grader.  Notice the gleaming Iron Man lunchbox; I guess that would be pretty cool to a six year old boy.  (I was rooting for a little plaid lunchbox/thermos ensemble; obviously it didn't win over gleaming Iron Man awesomeness.)

We continued our back to school celebration with these chalkboard cupcakes that I made (I got this idea from Family Fun).  This was my first time EVER making cupcakes, and it really felt like a rite of passage since real moms probably make cupcakes too.  We enjoyed these as a special treat the day before school started.

Here is Cole is his new (hideous) pjs last night.  He looks much happier wearing them, than he did shopping for them.

This year I'm hanging Cole's school clothes out the night before, so in the morning he can put them on and be ready to go before he comes downstairs.

Here is his lunch that I packed for him.  In his lunchbox.  Love note included.  I am a real mom.

Here he is this morning...ready for school!

While we were walking to his classroom before school started, he said, "I hope Molly still works here."  And she does!  And her classroom is right next to his.  This makes both Cole and I feel great.

After Mrs. Cochran opened the door, Cole went right in to find his name tag, and take his seat.

I love this picture because it captures the whiteboard in the background.  I love what the teacher wrote.

After this, I left Cole to become a first grader, while I went home to be mommy to two boys instead of three.  It felt different.  Nice even.  Only two kids to manage instead of three isn't so bad.  But I missed Cole a lot, and was super excited to pick him up after school and hear all about his day.  Chad worked from home today, so the whole family got to go retrieve him.

Cole told me the following story about his first day.  "I got a bloody nose after you left.  I tried to sniff and sniff so it wouldn't get on all the clean stuff - because of love."  This is a true story, Molly called me at lunch to tell me all about it.  What an impression we must've made on his new teacher. 

Get to know us, Mrs. Cochran.

Congratulations to Cole Robert Boyd on a successful first day of first grade (in spite of a bloody nose).  HOORAY!

I love this little boy!