nick is in kindergarten!

I know, I know....you thought I would never post again! And I'll admit, I had gotten rather lax about the ol' blog. But if anything is momentous enough to warrant a blog post, it's my baby's first day of Kindergarten! Yep - that's where he is right now, and where he'll be until 3:30 (!) this afternoon.

I'm really excited for him. His teacher, Mrs. Kelm, is awesome! She's just so patient and kind, and is spoken of very highly by other parents. And his classroom is great! It's very big and welcoming, and is full of neat stuff for the kids. There's even a Smartboard! And there are bathrooms right there in the room, which I think is awesome for the little ones. No scary solo trips down the hallway. The K kids get two recess periods each day (wonderful for Nick) and a short rest period, and they get to do P.E., art, music, computers, etc. One thing that kind of annoys me is that they only get 25 minutes for lunch, and his class eats at 10:45. He'll be starving by the time he gets home! But, there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm trying not to worry about it.

I took some good pics this morning, which I'll share one of these days soon. That's on my to-do list, along with cleaning my house and a million other things. He is wearing a cool new shirt that his Uncle Tim sent him, and new sneakers, too, and has a shiny new backpack and lunch bag. Who doesn't love back-to-school? :) I packed him a healthy lunch this morning, and off we went. When we got there, he sat right down at his table and started working on a worksheet that Mrs. Kelm had put out. He seemed right at home! I think his preschool program last year really put him in good stead to excel in Kindergarten. After leaving him to his work, I stopped by the teachers' lounge to partake of the "Boo Hoo Breakfast" that the PTO provided for K parents. A really nice touch, I thought! There was lots of yummy fresh fruit and various bread products. I lingered a bit longer than I had planned to, eating and chatting with other moms. I was also stalling on going home - not because I didn't want to go home to an empty house, but just because I didn't want to go home and have to get things done! :) And I'm still not getting anything useful done, unless you think this blog post is useful, which I guess it is, in a way.

On a side note, I just want to say that I had a blast buying school supplies for the first time. We had to get a trillion glue sticks, liquid glue, crayons, erasers, scissors, markers, watercolors, paper, Kleenex, a nap mat, etc. It was such fun! And I can't believe how cheap stuff was - 25 cents for a box of 24 crayons or a 2-pack of glue sticks! It was heaven for this cheap mom. :) We were able to drop off all of Nick's supplies yesterday evening, when the school had its "Meet the Teacher" event. We went and took all the supplies to Nick's classroom, and then headed to the cafeteria for an oh-so-healthy meal of a hot dog, chips, cookies, and lemonade. Hey, free food! Beggars can't be choosers, I guess. I've gotten two free meals at Nick's school in the space of 16 hours, so I can't complain. :)

His school is just great - it's small, which I like, and Nick already knows all the staff from his time there in preschool. Seriously! He knows the principal, counselor, librarian, custodians, etc., all by name. The kid's amazing. He totally knows his way around, and is very comfortable there. I just have a really good feeling about this school year, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun! I plan to go to PTO meetings and try to get involved in stuff, and I hope to be able to help his teacher, too. I'd really like to put together a contact roster for the parents of Nick's class, so that we can all get in touch with each other and share info. I'll see what Mrs. Kelm thinks of that idea.

Am I sad? Well, I am finding that I am a bit melancholy. It's funny - during the summer, I had pretty much convinced myself that this wouldn't be that much of a big deal, since he already went to that exact school last year, four days a week, for preschool. The thing is, I don't think that it really hit me, until just recently, what a big difference there is between 3 hours, 4 days a week and 7 hours, 5 days a week! Even as I sit here typing, I can't believe that it's still almost 5 more hours before he'll be done! I'm afraid it's going to be quite an adjustment for him, too, as he had still been taking a daily nap all summer. Now, that's out the window, and I'm afraid the poor little guy will be quite tired for a while, until his body adjusts. I think the biggest adjustment for me is going to be in making sure I use my time wisely. You know how sometimes having MORE free time makes you use it LESS efficiently? I'm afraid that I might fall victim to that, at least for awhile. With the whole day yawning ahead of me, I fear that my tendency will be to slack off instead of really getting stuff done. But, I'm going to make lists and try to stick to them. Next week, I'm planning to actually dust my house! Wow!

I think that more than sadness, I'm feeling guilt for not spending enough quality time with Nick when I had the chance. I'm one of those people who has a really hard time just being with her child, down on the floor, playing. I always feel like I should be getting something done. So, I might be near Nick and technically with him, but I'm not really with him, ya know? And now that he's gone 35 hours a week, I really feel terrible as it hits me what an idiot I've been not to spend more quality time with him. But, I'm actually hoping that Kindergarten will be my salvation, and will improve my relationship with my son. Sounds counter intuitive, but I think that even as the quantity of potential time together decreases, the quality of the time we do spend together can increase. Since I have 7 hours a day, 5 days a week to get stuff done, I should be able to get all my domestic chores taken care of when Nick is in school, so that after school and during the weekends, I can really just relax and be with him, with no distractions. Now, I know that it won't be quite so cut-and-dried, and it's hard to buck those ingrained tendencies, but I'm going to do my damnedest. I know that it will pay off for both of us if I can buckle down during the day and then let it all go when we're together, so I'm going to really try my hardest to make that happen. I don't want the limited time I have with Nick now to pass me by with nothing to show for it. So, that's my big goal for the school year - to use my alone time wisely so that I can get the most out of my Nick-time. Wish me luck! And wish Nick luck as he embarks on the first day of the first year of school!