Aug 26 2008
AJ’s first day of Kindergarten
My boss generously allowed me to come in late today for our 9th graders’ first day of school so that I could see AJ off to Kindergarten. I was really worried that I was going to be an emotional wreck, but I barely shed a few tears once he was inside the building.
We got up and got dressed, had breakfast and then I took Zoe to daycare while AJ and John finished up breakfast and went out to wait for the bus. We waited for nearly 30 minutes for the bus to arrive. It got to the stop about 25 minutes late. We took pictures of AJ and our neighbor Destin who is going into second grade this year. Apparently, like us, every parent putting their child on the bus today took pictures before and after their kids boarded, so they were running way late. After the bus rolled out, John and I drove up to a nearby parking lot and left his car there so we could go wait for the bus at the school. We waited there for another 10 or 15 minutes. I’m not even sure that AJ would have noticed us there if it weren’t for us calling his name. They were very organized, calling the kindies off the bus first and escorting them in separate from the rest of the children. He couldn’t tell me much about his day initially other than he’d had strawberry milk and chicken nuggets for lunch. The best part of his day was riding the bus. The next best part was seeing his friend Garrett from preschool during the after school care program.
After some time, he did recall that they’d heard the book The Kissing Hand, gone to art class, and laid down for a rest—oh, and he also had corn and apples with cinnamon at lunch. Tonight at bedtime we kissed each other’s palms so we’ll have kisses if we need them. (Love that book!)

They read the kissing hand to the kids on Orientation night when they took them from us for a little while. Then she read it again the 1st day and traced their hands. She sent that home with a note for the parents to decorate the hand and they will keep it in their Tiger Folder (goes back and forth every day and has 2 sides- one is things to keep at home and the other are things we need to send back for one reason or another) for when they feel lonely or sad. It’s just one more terrific thing this teacher has done for them/us in the 2 weeks since school started.
Glad your baby boy also had a good 1st day!!