Ryan's 1st Day

I officially have a Kindergartener. I'm a little beside myself, but I'll get over it. Every other mother on the planet has.
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Last night was completely chaotic: racing home from Kaylin's final birthday celebration with Mike's family at Chuck E. Cheese, baths, brushing teeth, reading stories, saying prayers, bedtime, packing lunches, I was so tense I actually felt nauseous...thank goodness this morning was more calm. Kaylin slept a little late, which gave Ryan and I time to enjoy our eggs and donuts (yes, I sugared him up on his first day of grade school) and before I knew it, it was time to head out the door at 7:45.

Here's our annual first and last day of school photo spot.

I was surprised to get a quick picture of Ryan and his new teacher.

This is a picture of Ryan at his "desk" at Meet the Teacher Night last week.

Once home, Kaylin played with all of her new birthday loot while I finished putting the house back together after our whirlwind weekend. Here she is having a tea party with a robot, a ballerina bear, a parrot, Elmo, a pig and a pink frog. I was eventually invited to attend, but it broke my heart when she said, "I wish Ryan could join my tea party..." We had a nice morning alone together, but I could tell she missed her brother.

Picking Ryan up was a madhouse. Thank goodness (did I just say that?) he begged me to ride the bus home tomorrow and every day after. When asked if he missed me during the day, he looked confused and said, "Um, no." I was surprised, but not at ALL offended. I'm thrilled that he had fun and stayed busy. He met a little friend on the playground but couldn't remember his name. That warmed my heart!
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We got to bed later than expected AGAIN tonight (I can't wait to get into an appropriate routine) and you could tell Ryan was melting. He wasn't as tired after school as I expected, but we'll definitely have to bump up bedtime since he'll get virtually no downtime all day long.
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It feels like I spent all day on the phone with people calling to check in on me and to follow up on how day 1 went. I am proud to announce that I didn't shed a single tear. Not today, anyway. Last night I was fighting them back before putting Ryan to bed. But today...I was brave! All in all, a successful first day for my big boy and this hyper-emotional mother.