Adam's First Day of Kindergarten

Last night for sleepovers

Adam organizing his backpack

Adam trying on his new backpack

Walking to the bus stop

Ryan, Derek, and Adam (It's Ryan's first day of kindergarten also)

Family Photo Op

The bus stop was hopping with activity

Here comes big yellow

Derek's first in line

The boys started school on Monday. Derek is going into the 3rd grade and Adam is starting kindergarten! Helen made arrangements to go into school late so she could see Adam off on his first day. The bus stop was full of activity with all the kids, parents, and pets. Helen and Sylvia (Ryan's mom) shed some tears, but held it together for the most part. It made it easier that the boys were so excited about starting school.

In general, Helen has a tendency to reminisce about the past or about how quickly the boys will be grown and gone. I try to live in the moment and appreciate that there are so many great experiences (albeit different) still to come. I wasn't really that emotional about Adam going to kindergarten - until Helen and I walked back from the bus stop together and then she left for work. I started gathering my things for work when I stopped, for some reason, and looked over at the counter where the boys eat their breakfast. I could see Adam sitting there waiting for me to get him some more cereal, like we usually did after dropping Derek at the bus stop. Then all the emotions and tears started coming. I could hear Adam's sweet little voice asking, "Dadda, after breakfast can you read me a story?" Or play a game with me, or play catch with me, or push me on the tire swing, etc.

The mornings have always been my alone time with the boys. For a couple years, before Derek started school, it was both boys, but for most of the time it's been one on one time with one of them - first Derek and then Adam. Helen and I have always tried to minimize their time in daycare, so I would keep the boys as long as I could in the morning - making my normal arrival time at work 10:00 (or later). Helen would leave school as soon as she could and pick the boys up by 4:00. Certainly not the hours necessary to be engineer or teacher of the year, but who wants that anyway?

Now, I'm getting into work a little before 9:00. I joked with some of my co-workers that I was in early because I was under the impression that there was a pancake breakfast every morning if you got into work before 9:00.

The boys had a great week and seem to really enjoy school. The only real bummer was that it was so hot all week (with temps over 100) that the school wouldn't let the kids go outside for recess. Today, Adam said he wanted to walk to school, so we did and took Ryan along with us. Hopefully, we'll make that a regular activity and walk a couple times a week.