I suppose now that it's already the month of November, I can say that I am officially the proud mom of a first grader. I put that in bold because I will have to read that sentence about twenty times over before I can truly believe it. Yes, Jackson started the first grade on September 5th, 2012. The emotions I experienced were actually very unexpected. I went through the entire summer excited for him and getting everything prepared for him. It wasn't until we attended the open house the night before that everything suddenly hit me. My little boy is no longer my baby. He is truly a big kid. When did that happen? How did it happen so darn fast?Needless to say, I was a complete and utter wreck the night before. I ended up calling my mom and sobbing on the phone for about thirty minutes. It had hit me that he was going to get on his very first school bus the next morning. That he was going to a school with hundreds of other kids in different grade levels. That he was a real part of the public school system now. Yikes. Was he ready for this? Would he be okay?
Thankfully my fears didn't rub off on my boy. He woke up the morning of school with the brightest smile on his face. He anticipated this new year with so much joy, it made my heart soar. We made sure his tummy was full with a healthy breakfast, got him dressed in his cool new clothes, and we walked down to the bus stop for the first time ever. As I watched him stand in line with the other kids, I just smiled to myself. We've had our struggles with him, that's definitely an understatement. But as I watched him, I realized something. We've done good. We're still doing good. He's such a great kid and I'm proud of myself and Eric as parents. Now to prepare myself for the time to be on warp speed - we have an elementary school student now.
