Gabe's First Day of School

Gabe started Kindergarten on Wednesday. Pretty crazy. Tuesday night we had a "meet your teacher" night at his school, and it took Libby and I both a bit of adjusting to the idea that he was already in school.

I mean, I know I spend most of my time bitching about the downsides of child rearing, and vocalizing my strong desire for both kids to be in school so I can finally regain a touch of freedom to pursue, well, pretty much anything. But that's just me putting on my "tough face," and coping in the worst way possible. But that's just my tough exterior. Inside, I'm a pretty sentimental, sensitive, romantic, thoughtful guy. Inside, where it doesn't do anyone else any good, like it's supposed to be.

Right before we left for his meet the teacher thing, the topic of Gabe introducing himself came up somehow, and Gabe's old introduction popped into my head: "I'm Gabe Albers from Big Boy." I loved that intro. I think it might have been my favorite thing that Gabe said--well, that he said regularly, like his catch phrase (it would be tough to beat him renaming Gatorade Hot Squirrel and giving an explanation of how much he loves Hot Squirrel for my favorite thing that he's said of all time). And it just doesn't seem like it's been long enough since he was so little that saying "from Big Boy" seemed like a logical thing to do when meeting someone new. Our little Bubbie (which we haven't called him in years, though that hardly seems possible either) actually IS a big boy now. And, though I appreciate the freedoms that his bigness will offer both of us, it is always sad to see the sweet parts of small childhood only from the rear view mirror.

Anyway.

These were our attempts to get a posed picture of the kids together before going. Gabe's backpack is stuffed full of supplies--a big binder and two reams of copy paper--so he was having a tough time standing up, much less standing still. And Norah was being Norah. She had no reason to be crying except that we had asked her to stand still and smile.

Remember those sentimental things I was saying before. Screw that.

Here's me carrying Gabe's stuff for him. I appear to be covered in a fine, thick, gray fur. Neat!

Gabe sitting at his table in what he chose to be his regular spot. This is the kind of attentive look I expect his teachers will see a lot of over the next thirteen plus years.

The reading corner in the classroom.

You'd think, based on how much he hams it up for the camera, that he'd have a better posed smile worked out by now.

The traditional first day of school picture on the front porch. No backpack because we left it hanging on his hook at school the night before.

With Norah. And a face.

Waiting in line at the bus. Because his school is outside of town, we have to drop him off and pick him up in the parking lot of the middle school.

The kid is a trooper. Something entirely new that he's never done before. Leaving the comfort of home and family into a group of strangers in a new environment, being asked to climb aboard a massive kid carrier without knowing the first thing about how the system works. And he was practically jumping up and down with excitement. It was kind of cute, actually. On our way to the bus stop, about five blocks from home, he said, "I need to pee! I need to pee!" So we stopped at the book store since it was right there and I went inside with him. He stood in front of the toilet for a minute without anything happening (he'd just peed a few minutes ago at home). "I can't go. Nothing will come out!" When we got back to the car I told Libby and she observed that it was probably nerves. He'd never really experienced "nervous" before and was registering it as a need to pee. Anyway, where I would probably have been freaked out and crying (in fact, that is what I was and did for the first few weeks of kindergarten, as I recall), Gabe jumped right in and loved everything about it.

And back home with the pick up. They're doing half days for the first six weeks and then switch over to full days. It will be interesting to see how he transitions to that. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, having him out of the house all day sounds pretty nice. On the other hand, just-five-years-old seems a little young to already be spending the entire work week out of the house. All I know is, as it stands right now, half days are making him kind of a dick. He's getting great stimulation and keeping busy for three hours and then has to come home and be around Norah and I again. He's been understandably disappointed by our level of interesting throughout the afternoons so far. With luck that will level off soon.

Probably a classic.