My baby had his LAST FIRST day of preschool last week. After six years of attending Opportunity Day, no more babies will hold my hand as we walk through the door after this year. Kind of breaks my heart a little bit. Joe, on the other hand, was fired up. He pretended in the weeks leading up to the big day to not be excited about school starting. "School is soooo boring. We have so much homework." Um, no you don't Joe. You don't have any homework and you love school.
He was up early and ready to go the first day of school. He loved his "new to him" backpack that was handed down to him from Ben this year. It is one of the cool one-strap backpacks and he thought he was big time. Joe was content to carry his several year old Star Wars lunch box. It is so funny to me the difference between Ben and Joe when it comes to "stuff" in general. Ben loves shiny, new, never-been-touched apparel. Joey is perfectly fine with anything handed to him. He is the king of hand-me-downs and this suits him just fine. This is probably the reason why, on the rare occasion that Joey does actually ask for something new, I am eager to grant his wish. Except when it's a slushy. He asks for those on a daily basis and I am never quite so eager to grant that request. It gets old.
Joey is attending school three days a week this year and though my schedule is really busy (more on that later), it seems like an awful lot and I definitely look forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have my little partner in crime by my side. We don't have to do anything special, I just like having him with me. Last week we did go to the Zoo one day and took his best friends, Macy and Drew with us. That was such a treat and I loved every minute. Yesterday we cleaned the house, went to the gym, and visited Abby. Nothing fancy, I just like hearing his laugh and knowing he is nearby.
Joey is in the "4s class" this year with Miss Stacey and Miss Kris. Miss. Kris has white hair and this evidently caused some stress for Joe, though he never mentioned it before. After the first day of school when I asked him how he liked his teachers he said "they weren't creepy! I was worried about the white hair one!" I don't think I will share that story with Miss Kris!!
Joe is doing a great job at school so far. He plays hard, works hard and then sleeps HARD! His teachers are amazed that he has taken a nap every day after lunch and he is definitely half comatose when I pick him up at 2:30. I have quickly learned not to ask him any questions or really talk to him at all until we pull up to Ben's school to wait for him to come out, about 10 minutes after we leave Joe's school. Even then, I don't get a lot of info out of Joe but he usually at least will tell me that his day was good and what the best part was.
I am so proud of my silly, independent, adventurous, kind little Joe Bug. I know he will have a great year and my heart already hurts a little at the idea of walking this little man into kindergarten next year.
