A supermom, I'm not...

I honestly can't remember a single first day of school before 7th grade. Perhaps it wasn't a very big deal, as it seems to be now. More likely, my parents weren't into the hoopla and just sent us on our way. Last year, the BIG kindergarten year, I would constantly forget to document the occasion. First day, first bus ride etc. My friends always took some pictures of Seth and said they would send them to me. I blamed my deficiency of supermomness on pregnancy or whatever else was convenient for the day.

This year was going to be different. I bought the school supplies early, unlike last year when I had to go to 4 different stores to get the right stuff. Had them all neatly tucked away, ready for the big day. The backpack and lunch tote were purchased and met Seth's approval. Smooth sailing. Then came the postcard with the orientation date on it. August 31st. Each student was to bring all of his school supplies and put them in his desk. But we were leaving for my hometown on the 31st. "No problem", I thought. I have several friends with children in the same class. I'll just get the information from them. And how long can it take to put school supplies in a desk? We'll just arrive at the school 15 minutes early on the first day and do everything then. We left in blissful ignorance and enjoyed 3 full days relaxing in the presence of my parents.

The night before, we had our family home evening and both Seth and Sam received blessings. We put all of the labeled supplies in Seth's backpack and I started fixing his lunch for the next day. Only trouble is, no one likes a soggy sandwich so that would have to wait until morning. And the orange can't be peeled that much in advance or it'll just dry out. Same with carrots. That certainly doesn't take long to just pull 2 or 3 out of the bag and put them into a sandwich baggy. I looked at Seth's lunch bag and all he had in it was a package of fruit snacks and some potato chips. Hmmm, I thought. Not much of a time saver but the supermoms do it so I will too.

The big day arrives. Nothing like a hot breakfast for the first day of school. But I'm out of eggs and Sammy doesn't like pancakes so I get him a bowl of tootie frooties which makes Seth jealous. So he gets a bowl. I know that's not going to give him the energy he needs to make it until the 12:20 lunch time so I pour him another when he's done. Can you really have too many simple carbs in the morning? Showers and then.....pictures! Voila!

First Day of 1st Grade

Seth's first day is officially documented. I finish his lunch and we load the van. We leave the house at 8:45 so we're already cutting into that 15 minutes I imaged would be plenty of time for Seth to move in and adjust. Now....Seth had afternoon kindergarten last year so I really didn't know what first day of school mornings are like. Wow. I seriously underestimated the time thing. I see cars lining the street of the school quite a distance from it. Optimistically, I pass them all hoping beyond all hope that there might be a space available closer and easier from which I can haul all 3 kids into the school. Jackpot. It involved parallel parking but that was no deterrent to an increasingly anxious mom. We got out and immediately saw Kariann and her kids walking down the street from their house. Yay! I'm not too late! As we walk towards the school, she comments on how she's been so sad all morning. Sure enough, I look over and her eyes are even red. Concerned, I asked, "why?", totally expecting some bad news. A quick curious look and then the obvious explanation...our oldest kids were going to be gone all day! For the first time! Which makes you sad when you're a....supermom! I immediately defended myself by explaining that I was a bit sad the night before. I am really not totally heartless.

Inside the school, Seth finds his desk and we start unloading the goodies. It was so much fun. The new markers and crayons and glue and scissors and pencils and....wait....his school box is at least half the size as all of the other kids. I didn't even see that size in the stores. And the list didn't say "the enormous school box" it just said "school box" and I had that. Only it didn't fit everything. Which, until I saw the enormous ones, I didn't realize was a problem. I figured it was for the small stuff. The pencils and erasers and scissors. Not the 3 large glue sticks, glue bottle, box of markers AND crayons. I kiss him on the side of the head and explain that I'll go find the bigger one but for now we'll just stuff all of that stuff inside of the desk sans box. I take his backpack and lunch and go hang it where his teacher told me to but notice the big rubbermaid bin with all of the other lunchbags in it. But they all have big permanant markered names on them. My eyes dart around the room for a sharpie and spot one on Mrs. Harvey's desk. Very nonchalantly, I make my way over and permanently identify his bag of food as his. Then I notice all of the cameras. Ugh. Didn't I bring mine too? Oh, you'll take one for me? And send it to me? Thanks!

There is coffee and donughts out on the blacktop. I can't have either but I go out there anyway because I don't want to miss out and maybe a donught is the thing that will get Sammy to stop crying that he can't stay at school too. It works but I feel out of place among the supermoms. I see one mom I know about their family's big trip they had just returned from. She gushed about how fun it was but said they cut it short two days so they could be back for orientation. Uh-huh. She says she is coming back for lunch and will check on Seth as I'm not sure how the whole milk buying thing works. I look around and everyone is dazzling in their cargo pants and fitted shirts and smooth hair with perfect make-up. I was dressed but my shirt already had spit-up on it and in the rush of the morning my hair had airdried without any product in it so it was pretty frizzy and twisted up in a clip.

If Seth's anything like me, he will never remember yesterday. And it really wasn't that bad. It just wasn't perfect. So the call in the afternoon from "that" mom saying how I forgot to send money with Seth for milk so she took care of it but I might want to go and set up his lunch account didn't bother me too bad. I'm just glad she was there to help him out and for my own contribution to her supermomness.

Today, I took Seth to school again. Walked into the building and set up his lunch account. Walked down to the room, WITH camera and took a picture.

Second Day of 1st Grade. It counts, right?