School Starts

Promptly at 6:04 a.m., I heard my son's shower fire up. His backpack is packed and by the door. He laid out what he was going to wear, last night. His wallet has ones in it for the snack and juice machines. He is reluctantly ready. I'm so ready.

It is traditional that I stay home the first day of school. I took the whole week off his first year at kindergarten. That first day was tough for me. I took him to school and the parents stayed for the first hour. When the parents were dismissed, kids cried and clung to their mommies. Not mine. "See ya mom" was all I got. I went home and cried. At the end of the day, I was waiting at the bus stop with our dog Sam fifteen minutes before the bus was due. When the bus finally pulled up and opened it's doors, my son never got off the bus. I could see him on the bus, he just didn't get off. Not knowing exactly where the next stop was, Sam and I chased the bus as it pulled off. Waving my hands in the air, chasing the big yellow bus, I was in a panic thinking give me my baby back! Sam happily ran along beside me, barking. We ran all the way to the next stop where I got on the bus and retrieved my son. He hasn't really taken the bus much ever since.

It is also tradition that I take a picture of him on the porch getting ready to leave. I bought batteries for the camera but in all the rearranging and painting that went on over the weekend (details later), I can't find them now. So while he eats breakfast and watches the morning news, I'll be running around looking for batteries.

At 7:25, his dad will take him to school and I will begin the happy dance of back to school joy. No more coming home to empty soda cans and teenagers sprawled all over the living room. No more 47 calls on Thursday (his laundry day) that go something like, "do red underwear go into the underwear load or the red load?". No more coming home after a hard day to hear, "I'm bored, can we go out to dinner and shopping tonight?". I'm gonna miss all that.

To all the moms out there, enjoy the first day back to school. Do your own happy dance of back to school joy. Do it in your p.j.s with the family pets looking at you as if you've lost your mind. Then pour yourself a cup of coffee and sit down to knit. In a really quiet house.