1st Day of 2nd Grade

Clark started school today and he was pretty excited to go.  His teacher this year is Ms. Tseng and we have heard nothing but wonderful things about her.  Clark and I got up together at 6:15am, and while he got dressed, I went down and made him his favorite breakfast:  Eggs, Bacon, and Toast with milk to drink.  He ate it on the "Special" plate and was ready to go meet up outside with his best friend Annie before they had to get on the bus.  I made him take some pictures, and every year it surprises me how much he has grown up.  Sometimes it is difficult to notice the changes when you are doing the parenting thing day in and day out 24/7, but I think that is why I like specific milestone days like the first day of school, because it is easier to compare how they were last year on the same day to how they are now and see the growth.

Sometimes I worry about Clark on days like today because he is so much like me.  I remember times  while growing up building up specific events in my head, and then when they didn't turn out quite like I imagined or if I ended up having a bad experience when I was expecting or had planned for a good one, it would really do a number on me emotionally.  I don't know, maybe everyone is like that...but I see that part of myself in him a lot.  However, he got off the bus this afternoon all smiles and had nothing but good things to say about his teacher and school.

I had written him a love note and drew a funny picture on it and put it in his lunch box.  I thought it was weird for him that he didn't mention it at all, and when I brought it up, he was like uh, yeah that was funny.  I finally learned why as I was tucking him and Andrew into bed tonight, and I said "I am glad you had a good day today."  He said "Yeah, it was good, except when a couple of kids stole my note from you and started laughing at me because of what it said...but it was my own fault, I should have just kept the note to myself and not shown it to anyone...I had only wanted them to see the funny picture you drew."  I almost burst into tears, I felt so bad.  I am not sure if this was the best parenting moment for me (aka no judging), but I said to him "you know why those kids were laughing at my love note to you?" and he said "Why?" and I said "Because maybe they were wishing their mom had written a love note to them in their lunch today." He said "Do you know that because you learned that at Mom school?" And I said "You Betcha."  I asked him if he wanted any more notes or not from me, and he said "I will like any notes you want to put in my lunch any day you want to send them, Mom."  One of the many reasons this experience was so precious to me, is because I realized that if this had happened to Clark a year or two ago, this incident would have probably caused a royal meltdown at school, but it didn't now, and he said he just grabbed the paper back and shoved it into his lunch box even though people were still asking to see it.  I am just happy that at least today, Clark handled himself well through an unpleasant experience that should have been a pleasant one...and really experiences like this are at least half the battle of life, right?