Wyatt's First Day of School

Tuesday, Sept. 6th was Wyatt's first day of school. First grade!! And for us, that means his first year of going to school all day long everyday. He was really excited and if you asked him what he was looking forward to the most, he'd say, "Lunch at school, gym class and recess!" Spoken like such a boy! Matt then asked him if there was anything he was excited to learn at school and he answered, "Math".
The night before school we asked Wyatt if he was excited and he said, "I have been waiting for this day all summer long!", which is actually true. The first day of summer he said to me, "I am bored. When can I go to school again?" Thankfully he really enjoys school.

The big morning finally came and we started the day with the kids' favorite--homemade cinnamon rolls.

I had told Wyatt that on school days, he needed to lay out his clothes the night before and then dress himself. The same is true for Sadie, however, she got an extra day of summer so she got to stay in jammies for awhile (which made her VERY happy!)

(notice that wonderful storm door my hubby put in?)

My sister Mary Jo was with us that morning because she had gone to a concert at the State Fair the night before. It worked perfectly to have her there and I had high (unreasonable) hopes that this would allow us to get a great family picture on the first day of school. But then I was quickly reminded of how some of my family members feel about mornings in general and how hard it is to keep others still.

I wasn't going to give up too easily but when Sadie's complaining about the bright sun didn't stop and Wyatt started to notice the same thing, we just called it quits. Some year.....

(p.s. our house faces north, so the sun was off to the side! Not sure why they were so bothered by it)

This was the best Sadie could do.....and I'll take it!

Wyatt and Gracie

(unfortunately they aren't in the same class this year, but still the same bus!)

The bus stop kiddos

(Emma, the little girl with the white bow in her hair, is in Wyatt's class this year along with his good friend Titus)

One last picture with my boy

Immediately after we took this picture, the bus pulled up. And I didn't anticipate it at all, but Wyatt started crying. I was completely unprepared for it, although it is fitting with his personality. I think he just realized that it was all so real and he was going to get to school and not know his 'routine' yet. But he held Gracie and Lillie's (Grace's older sister) and sat with them on the bus. All the other moms were crying when they saw Wyatt getting sad, but I knew I had to stay strong for him and show him that everything would be just fine. My neighbor had to go up to the school later in the day and she texted me, saying, "Just saw your boy at school with a HUGE smile on his face. Asked how his day was going and he said, 'great'!"

I knew he would be fine once he got to school and realized that the first day is new for everyone and he wasn't the only kid who didn't know how everything was going to work.

He got off the bus that afternoon and ran to Sadie, Blake and I and it was then that I got a bit choked up, realizing that someday I won't have a little boy running to me after school (and that someday I won't be able to pick him up!)

One mom brought fresh-baked cookies for all the kids and another brought popsicles, so we all sat outside for over an hour and heard all the details about the first day. Wyatt looked at me and said, "Mom, you put OREOs in my lunch and a note for me!" When I told him that I knew that, he asked, "When did you get OREOs?" I thought it was so cute and I am looking forward to being able to brighten his day when I can't be there through the lunch that I pack him. I remember so fondly, opening my lunch and feeling the love of my mother whenever she wrote me a note, just knowing that she was thinking about me even when I wasn't with her. So hopefully Wyatt will feel the same thing.

That being said, he really wanted to take hot lunch the next day and I told him he could. Many of the other moms had encouraged me to let him do it at least once the first week just to make sure he knows how to do it with his pin # as they have many extra helpers on hand the first week of school to make sure kids know what they are doing. So on Wednesday, I let him get hot lunch and told him to request the 'healthy option', telling him it was a bagel and cream cheese with fruit. When he got off the bus, I asked how lunch went and he said, "Mom, there wasn't a bagel.....only fruit......and now I am starving!" Some of the other kids at the bus stop were trying to explain to Wyatt where he needed to go to get the bagel (very nice kids, I might add, who are friends of Wyatt's) but I could tell he was getting embarassed. When I looked down at him, he had tears in his eyes but also some green goop (sp?). I said, "Wyatt, it's okay. We can talk about it at home, but do your eyes hurt?"

Before I even finished saying it, I knew he had pink eye. As his head was bowed, I just said, "Honey, I think you have pink eye. Let's go home and take a look at it." Well, apparently that made him even more upset, as I later learned he somehow thought having pink eye was his fault and he had done something to get it.

To make a long story just a bit shorter, we came in and put some drops in his eyes that I had left over from when Sadie had pink eye. He calmed down and I looked on the school lunch schedule and sure enough, Wyatt was correct in getting fruit at school because the healthy choice option for the day was a fruit platter with honey sunflower seeds! Poor guy...I felt horrible! But once I reassured him that his eye would get better and that I was wrong about the lunch thing, he was just fine. He still wanted to try hot lunch again when it was something that he actually wanted, so I told him we would try it again this week. But that will have to wait because this morning he woke up with an ear ache. So after two days in first grade, I had to call him in sick and we went in to the doctor's office to get looked at. Sure enough, ear infection AND pink eye AND Blake also had an ear infection!! Thankfully they are all issues that can be solved relatively quickly and Wyatt is looking forward to being back in school tomorrow.