First Days

Today was the boy's last first day of school. That's right, he's a senior. I can still clearly recall his first day of Kindergarten. It was raining buckets... like a deluge. He was wearing his shiny blue raincoat with the red and yellow stripes and his first Green Bay Packers Jersey underneath. He carried an umbrella. After his teacher shooed us out of the classroom, Mark and I went to this special room where they served doughnuts for the distraught parents. We each ate a doughnut and went to work. Today he wore jeans and a white tee shirt with an undershirt underneath (since the shirt was kind of see through). He dropped me off at school and drove himself down to the high school. I feel old.

Today was my little pumpkin's first day of high school. She was in a horrendous fury yesterday because we would not let her ride to school with her cousin's boyfriend. You see, in CA, it is illegal for kids to drive other kids around until 1 year after they've had their license, and he's only had his license a few weeks. He's already been pulled over with the cousin in the car and the police had to drive her home. She thought we were being incredibly unreasonable for not letting her ride with him. When I dropped her off at her friend's house this morning (who she was riding the bus with) she answered my "I love you" with a firmly closed door. After school we spent almost $80 on school supplies. I had no luck trying to persuade her that cute binders and pens versus plain binders and pens didn't determine her worth as a person. I feel stomped on and tired.

Today was my 11th first day of school as the teacher. I can't remember any details from my first day of school as the teacher. Except that I had a cute little class of 16 Kinders and I was really excited about putting my room together. Today, I didn't feel at all nervous. I really can't remember the last time I felt nervous about starting school. I had some fun moments with my class, but they sure had a lot of energy!! It will take many sessions with my favorite puppet Herm the Worm, and lots of practice, practice, practice for them to all get "how" to do school. I have many talkers. When we were walking out to the bus they little boy who was holding my hand looked up at me and said, "I had fun." For this, I am happy.