In Which Connor Goes To School

Today was Connor's first day of school!

Last year Connor was pretty anxious about going to school, and I was worried that since he'd be at a new school this year he'd be even more nervous.  So I've spent the last few days reminding him how much fun he had in school last year, and how he's going to have such a great time at school this year too, with meeting new friends and music class and PE and all, which made him pretty enthusiastic. 

Then I upped the ante and spent the morning calling relatives and demanding that they tell him how great first grade was going to be, because every time someone told him what a big boy he was and how proud they were he got this huge smile on his face and practically started vibrating with excitement.  It was ridiculously cute.

I took a bunch of the obligatory First Day of School Photos, which mostly turned out blurry.  This was because he was applauding wildly from the time we left the house until we actually arrived at school, which was pretty impressive considering it's almost a twenty minute drive.  He first picked out his black fedora to wear today (apparently this is a Classy Hat in General obsession rather than just a Top Hat obsession) but then changed his mind and settled on his white fedora, which he cheerfully insisted on wearing it into the classroom. 

He calmed down once we got out of the car, and by the time we took a few more first day shots outside the school and were ready to go in he'd morphed into a quiet, well-behaved gentleman.  He still seemed excited, but he was a bit more reserved about the whole affair.

He sat on my lap while I showed his teacher how to use his oxygen tank.  I'm hoping they won't have to use it very often at all; certainly less than they had to his last two school years.  After I finished talking with the nurse and his teacher, Connor spent a few brief moments snuggling with me, and then he was ready for his day. I managed to get outside before I started tearing up over just how much I was going to miss him, while at the same time making a reasonable effort to jump up and click my heels together like George Banks towards the end of Mary Poppins. I've found that motherhood tends to produce these sorts of conflicting emotions. 

He had a great, noneventful day at school while I drove around on various Important Errands, like a Cupcake Buying Errand and a Read Books In The Coffee Shop errand, in a kind of giddy, overemotional state, constantly remembering at the last minute that I couldn't use handicapped spaces since Connor wasn't in the car.  The rest of the day was also uneventful, which is actually the first year that's ever happened.  The last two years he had big seizures on his first day, and the year before that we were right at the beginning of Jer's recovery from the Land Mine Incident and everything was insane.  So I could totally get used to this whole normal first day of school thing.

That's my big boy!