First day of Kindergarten!

I seriously cannot believe that Ethan is old enough to be going to school. I remember freaking out last year when I sent him down the block to go to preschool. This year, I was even more nervous, because it wasn't in a contained daycare. He has an entire school and playground to run around and escape from. I've been nervous he would walk himself home one day out of the blue, or ask to use the bathroom and leave and not go back to class, not play nice, etc ... I've been nervous that in a classroom with so many little kids, his teacher wouldn't be able to keep her eye on him as much as I have, so he will slip by. But, I do know that I need to learn to let go. I need to trust that he'll behave himself and that everything will be fine.

Ethan started counting down to Kindergarten probably the week after he finished Preschool. He has been waiting all summer to start at his new school. The morning finally came and we started getting ready. He was beaming and so dang excited! 
 

We had been looking everywhere for a backpack that he would like (he asked for a transformer backpack), but he found one that he liked and no matter what I tried to bribe him with or talk him into, this is the only one he talked about for 3 weeks ... and so I finally gave in and got him the backpack he wanted. Yes, my 5 year old has a wrestling backpack. (I guess no one will accidentally take it home by mistake). He LOVES it!

We saw this idea on Pinterest last year and thought it would be cute to keep track of what he wanted to be when he grew up as he got older. (You can see last year's here)

He could not wait to get going, and was thoroughly disappointed when Dad drove us the first day instead of walking. Once we got there and I took him through the door into his classroom, he started to get nervous. The room was swarming with parents dropping off their kids and taking pictures. You could tell he was not sure what was going on! Poor thing.

I didn't think I would, but as I walked out of that classroom, I started to tear up. I told myself I needed to suck it up before I got back to the car so that Mart didn't make fun of me. When I picked him up, he told me that he had a great day and was so excited that he got to go back the next day. When I checked his backpack for homework, I found this gem instead:

Poor Lincoln isn't sure what to do with himself while his best buddy is gone. He is really sad that Ethan gets to go to school and he doesn't. When we go to drop Ethan off or pick him up, Lincoln has to wear his backpack or he has a royal meltdown (that happened today in fact. He sobbed the entire walk there, all the way to the classroom, the 5-10 minute wait in the classroom waiting for the teacher to arrive, and then the entire walk back home ... all because he didn't have his backpack).

Cute boys! Ethan was so ready for school again today, but Lincoln was not ready to let him go again.

It'll be so nice to get into a new routine. Poor Lincoln hasn't quite adjusted to his new schedule. About 20 minutes before we had to leave to pick Ethan up, I walked in the living room and found Linc like this:

His body hasn't gotten the memo that nap time is now 3 hours later than usual ... poor guy. He naps really good now though!