School Days, School Days!

It finally arrived!

We have a third grader, and another Kindergartner!

After a harrowing night with poor Brandon howling in pain from... gas? Who knows. Whatever it was, it kept him in tears and Mommy and Daddy pretty darn close to tears as well. He would settle down and go back to sleep, but 30 to 45 minutes later, he was up crying and searching for Mommy to lay down - as in, lay down on top of me. He's heavy and he's hot, so you can imagine how comfortable that was for me. This began at midnight.

Nevertheless, I plugged in my beloved iPod and blasted "Ob La Dee, Ob La Da" (one of Hayden's favorites) and he was downstairs in no time, shrieking "KINDERGARTEN! KINDERGARTEN!!" Julia followed shortly, and a cheerful Brandon tagged along, fresh out of my bed. (Stinker.)

Breakfast, brushed teeth and hair, freshly washed faces and some really cute new clothes later, I had three excited kids ready for school. Okay, so you're asking, why was Brandon excited? Well, Sunday I found one of Hayden's old backpacks, and he agreed to graduate it to Brandon. We filled it with new big boy underwear and clean shorts, and he was excited to have a backpack just like the big kids!

Brandon did really well considering it was his first time ever walking into preschool without Hayden. He was a real trooper. Of course, the days that I don't forget his banana are always easy, so we'll see how it goes when I forget to buy more at the grocery store. He was a big boy and said good bye to Julia and Hayden, and he went to class.

Once we arrived at Brazos Bend, we found a great parking space really close to the school and unloaded. As we were walking in, I realized Hayden's shorts were on backward! (If you look closely, you can see it in the picture above!) Not willing to send my child into the kindergarten bull pit as the butt of every joke, I dragged him back to the truck, stripped him down and corrected the problem.

Julia was sweet and told Hayden how handsome he was, and commented that the girls were really going to like him in Kindergarten. I wish I had a picture of his expression, but the best sum of it is, "yeah, I know." (I guess it would be considered a bit egotistical, but I DO admire his confidence!)

Julia and I walked Hayden to Mrs. Wienken's class, where, since I am SO seasoned, now, I know to hug, kiss and skedaddle. So I did. At that point, Julia hugged her pesky little bro - and requested a kiss. Again, the expression was priceless. You've got to be kidding me?! Another dad in the room overheard and began to laugh. I said "Nope, sister is not getting a kiss today!"

At that point, Julia and I took a quick visit to get a hug from Mrs. McCrory (2nd Grade) and always precious Miss Bargas (Kindergarten), then it was time for my big third grader to go off to Miss Lubojasky's.

We've had a great experience at Brazos Bend Elementary over the past three years, so I have no reason to assume this year will be any different. We're excited to have our school year off to such a great start!