Tuesday, September 9, 2008

First Day

In lieu of stringing words together to form actual sentences, which may or may not represent complete thoughts, I thought I'd just show off a few pictures of the fruits of my labors.

Taken hastily on the first day of school, with less than cooperate models and a shitty photographer, it is still, nonetheless, amazing to me.

Three kids. One school.

Almost seven hours of silence.

First, my big kid. He gave me the most grief about the first day of school. Somewhere along the line he caught wind of the fact that this was a short summer vacation. A full week short. So he begged me to do what the school district refused to do...extend his vacation. He has since settled in nicely with his fourth grade class. While he does not have any close friends with him this year, he seems to fit in with the boys in his class and I'm hearing the names of new friends daily. Phew!

My Maggie May. My sweet little thing. She hardly said a word all morning on the first day. I asked her if she was nervous and she bravely told me no, she was excited. She squeezed me the hardest as the bus rounded the corner, but never looked back. Of the three, she is the most eager to share her day with me...tells me all about who got in trouble and who she sat with at lunch. She is proving to me every day that I had nothing to worry about. She's just fine. She's a big girl now.

Libby. Libby, Libby, Libby. She talked almost non-stop from the moment her eyes opened. She was dressed, her teeth were brushed and she was examining the contents of her backpack (again) before my feet even touched the carpet. Not once did she wonder about what first grade was going to be like...she TOLD me what it was going to be like. She has it all figured out, and she doesn't miss a trick. She begged, pleaded and sobbed to get her hair cut yesterday, and after I finally gave in and took her, she admitted that she just wanted her name on the "Hair Cut" chart. She is something else!

This last one was taken only moments before the bus arrived...and then they all disappeared. There were no tears...from them or me, but I'll admit that they didn't leave my mind for a second and I counted the minutes until they got off the bus. I needed to know that they were okay, that they had survived the day without me and that they felt comfortable in their classrooms.

It was a long, hard day for me.

BUT...you'll be happy to know that my new favorite time of day is 8:39am, Monday to Friday.

Buh-bye! See you in seven hours!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it!!! They are so big and grown up. Great job with the offspring, you and Steve must be so proud.

Bird said...

What what what? 7 hours with no kids? Parteeeeyyyy!!

I can remember all those first days of school. No sleep the night before, wanting to vomit on the bus and then realizing everyone around me felt the same way and relaxing. You couldn't pay me a million dollars (don't believe me, I'll do anything for money) to do that again!

OK, gotta go. My pig needs more lipsti....

Anonymous said...

Lucky school!!

Pieter said...

Ye gods! Change is the only constant! They look marvelous!

As far at the pig goes ... you can dress a pig in a fur coat and all you'll get is a sweating pig with an ego problem.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mart,

Great story (as usual). The kids are awesome. Ya gotta love the way Jack thinks ... I too would extend my vacations (if ONLY I could.)! Take care. Have a lovely day. Lori

The Butterfly said...

My comment comes late in the day. However has anyone seen better looking kids and they're simply a wonderful sight for sore eyes!! Jack seems to grow before our eyes and so good looking. Maggie and Libby are my favorite twins in the world. I await pictures of the haircuts and some to frame and of course parade at work. Hope to see you in about four weeks!!