BTS

(See Jonah under the canopy? He is not crying - he is complaining that the sun was too bright and we kept making him smile for pictures.)

It has been a two-day back to school launch at our house. Jonah had a small half-day (quarter day? He is in Kindergarten, so even on a normal day he only goes for a half day.) where Amy went with him for the first 30 min. Today is his first real day - and he rides the bus!! Noel started pre-school today.

I wish we could say that we had some really awesome back to school traditions, like father's blessings and thoughtful journal writing, or chocolate chip waffles cut into the shapes of ABCs and 123s. But we don't. We were mainly focused on trying to get the kids to eat breakfast at all and reminding Noel that he was excited about pre-school, since the mood was wavering between excitement and telling me that he would rather go to the ice cream store than school. (Side note: wouldn't we all?)

But we made it...Jonah came in the car to drop Noel off. It was fantastic to listen to him doling out brotherly advice. "Noel. When you get in the school, first you have to hang up your backpack." "The best class is gym." and my favorite, "If someone asks if you want to be friends, you should say yes. You can have two friends, or a lot of friends. I had a lot of friends."

There was a brief moment of "I don't want to stay" when we first got there, but I distracted him with hanging up his backpack (great advice, Jonah!!) and finding his name card. Then it was off to the gym (You're right again, Jonah!) I hung outside the door for a minute to make sure he was OK. He stood in the middle of the room for a second kind of looking around. Then he ran over and started jumping on mats, so I slipped away. He was fine.

And I am not ashamed to admit I got a little teary in the car.
This is Jonah on back to school day one. Notice the fun shoes. I think funky shoes are the key to a cool little boys wardrobe. (And those did not come from Oshkosh. Oops.)

Off we went to the bus stop. Which is at the top of our street.
The bus comes at 11:07am. You are supposed to be there 15 min early. They are picking up like 10 kids. How could they get so off schedule that they would be there 15 min early? But, Jonah (and me) is a rule follower so we were there plenty early. And we had to wait a bit.Jonah was very focused and serious. I think he was excited, but he knew this was a big day and didn't want to be distracted by idle chit chat. He. was. waiting. And that was all he wanted to focus on doing. There were quite a few false alarms, too. I think we are the last stop, so the bus passed us about 10 times as it zig-zagged around the neighborhood. Jonah thought it was really funny every time we would get ready for it...and then it would pass us by.

But at last, they arrived. And the bus driver knew his name, which did a nervous Dad's heart good. (I had fears that maybe this was some bus that would drop him off in downtown Vancouver.) And he climbed right on and went and sat next to some little boy. And was totally fine.
I, on the other hand, shed a few tears as I walked back to the house with Lila. At least she's still little.