First Day of 1st Grade!

Today was Aidan's first day in 1st grade. We've been talking about starting school for the past few weeks. Let's just say that he was uninspired. Every time we asked him if he was ready to start school he would say, "no". Every time someone asked him if he was excited about going back to school he would say, "no". Plain and simple...he did not want to go back to school. Needless to say we were feeling a bit nervous about him starting school all the while trying to talk school up and say how great it was going to be (was it?), how nice his teacher would be (would s/he?) and how much fun he would have (would he?).


There were a few clues that gave us hope. He got this "snake eyes" shirt a few weeks ago and he said he wanted to save it for the first day of school. When we talked about his old friends from kindergarten he seemed happy and talkative. When we went shopping for his Marvel comics backpack and school supplies he was excited and into it. So we held on to these little pieces of hope and continued think things might go well on the first day.

This morning was fine (not great but fine). His mood was kind of up and down and bit sporadic but I think it was the nervousness and part excitement (yes, deep down in there I think there was some excitement!). He took a shower, put on his new snake eyes shirts and shorts and we remembered that we had a new pair of sneakers for him and he thought that was fun.


We got in the car and he did great. We got out of the car and I could tell he was nervous but still fine. He got a little clingy when we went up to the door and Jason said we couldn’t go in. I saw that there were parents going in so I said, "let's go in" and we all headed in. Leo was asking if we had to go in (yes, “had” to go in). Then when we went in Leo said, “can we go home now” – he had bike riding on his mind. Aidan was doing okay when we were waiting outside the door. On of his friends from kindergarten was also waiting outside of his classroom and she said "Hi Aidan" and he mumbled "Hi" back. The rest of his class came up from the gym and it was finally time to go in. Sadly, he hid his face in my shoulder and arm and cried. I felt so bad. I told him how brave he was, how big he was and how much fun he would have but he wasn’t buying what I was selling. I was trying to hold out until his friend William arrived because they were great friends (& Kentaro who he misses so much) and we found out on Friday that William sits in his quad of four desks (plus!). It was starting to get late and William had not arrived so I finally scootched him to the door and his teacher saw him crying and took him by the hand to hang up his backpack and sit in the circle with the other kids. His teacher and I gave each other the nod…mine indicating “he’s upset and nervous” and hers indicating “I understand. I got it from here. Go ahead and go”. After that I went out of the classroom and I told Jason “let’s go”. After we left, I cried too. I just feel so bad that he feels so nervous and unsure. I wish there was something I could do or say to make him feel less nervous, unsure and secure but I couldn't think of anything and anything I could think of didn't work. Jason gave Aidan a special coin to hold in his pocket and touch whenever he felt nervous but he still felt nervous.

After school we all picked him up and he was smiling and happy. He said he had a good day and only cried once in the morning. He said he liked his teacher and said his favorite part of the day was recess. He said he was tired at recess and had no energy because they don't eat lunch until 1:00pm and have recess first. This we thought was crazy...I'm hungry (seriously) by 11:30am. They have snack time earlier but the grapes we sent "were too sour" so he didn't eat too many of them. He said they did computer lab and he was quite talkative (always a good sign). After school we went to DairyQueen for blizzards (Aidan had M&M, Jason had, you guessed it Butterfinger and Leo and I shared Thin Mint). We came home and boys rode their bikes and played with the neighbor kids. Aidan is playing Wii for a bit, Leo is watching Polar Express and playing with a lego car and we will eat dinner soon.

All in all, it was a great day (no throwing up!) that got better and better. I'm sure tomorrow will be better!