Kindergarten!

My big brother is officially a kindergartener. As you may have guessed, he approached the first day of school like it was just any other day - he really is so cool. Our elementary school is a block away, 187 mom steps to be exact. The school district requires an adult to drop off and pick up kindergarteners at the school door, so I get to walk him to and from school.

As we walked towards the school on the first day, most kids stayed close to their parents. Bodie, on the other hand, scanned the crowd and would holler to each friend he saw. A fourth grade safety patroller yelled out to Bodie even before he'd spotted her followed by his new principal, "Welcome Bodie! Glad you're here." REALLY?!?! What kindergartner is known - by name - by the principal on the FIRST DAY!!?!? Like I said, he's so cool.

As Bodie got near the parent drop off point, he looked up at my mom and said, "I've got this." And waved her off as he walked on. I pressed my tiny face up against the cafeteria glass door as he left and whimpered, "Booooooodieeeeeee." He was gone. And I was alone. It was kind of sad. This may have been the only point when my mom got emotional. But she scooped me up and we were off on our own adventure - trying to help us both forget how much we already missed Bodie.

We're now a few weeks in to our new routines and all is going great. Bodie has a bunch of new friends, loves doing experiments at school, and has only been in trouble for "over climbing" the playground equipment. I guess you're supposed to stay on the inside of the protective rail and not scale the outside of it 15 feet in the air. Here's one of our creations for the school's chalk day.

We're lucky that they have lots of teacher work days and early release days for meetings, so we've had bonus adventures when that has happened. We hiked around Roosevelt Island, went on a father and son campout, and last Friday our whole family went to Pumpkinville - days off are the best!

My mom and dad went to Bodie's first parent teacher conference. My mom said the teacher sat in a big chair and had my parents sit below her in the tiny kid chairs - the image of that makes me laugh. And more important that my parents awkward sitting position is how happy Bodie is; he's doing well in school and having fun - the thing that matters most.