kindergartener

Before


After

ow that the fourth day of kindergarten is nearly over, I should probably get around to writing down my thoughts these last few days. What an experience to hand your first child off to another person, to be molded for 6 hours a day by a near stranger... The only relief that first day was knowing that some sort of divine intervention landed him in the best class at his school.

We actually requested and got another teacher initially, on the recommendation of an acquaintance, but after meeting her I was very apprehensive. She just didn't seem to be the kind and loving person I imagined and frankly, I was scared. After meeting her Benson said, "I hope she doesn't yell at me," and I got the same vibe. By some miracle we got a voicemail later that day from the sweetest woman, who is now Benson's teacher, saying there was some sort of mix-up and she hoped we wouldn't be too upset about the change into her class. Oh the relief! I'm so grateful for the "mix-up" as I couldn't imagine a better teacher for Benson. He loves her and so do I.

I've now entered the stage of annoying mom, as I grill him on absolutely everything that happened during the day: What did you eat? Who did you play with? What did you learn? and on and on and I usually only receive the most casual answers: Oh I don't know mom, not much, I don't remember, I had to visit the nurse because I got my finger smashed (!) like this is all no big deal and he's an old pro at kindergarten now.

My favorite thing from the first day was after he came home Ben asked if he missed us and he said without skipping a beat, "Nope. I was too busy having fun to even remember you!" Which is probably the best thing he could have said.

And Banks is on cloud nine, in case you were wondering. He doesn't miss Benson a bit, and it's crazy to see the change in his personality. He's outgoing! And social! And sweet! This is going well so far. And I only cried 3 times the first day, 0 times the next few days, and once today as Benson got on the bus for the first time. I was like the person in those movies where they chase after the bus (or train) and fall in a mess in the middle of the street after it's out of sight. I just hope like crazy he actually gets off the bus when I go to meet him in an hour!