Back to school.

Today is my kids' first day of school.

Vivian was awake early and in very good spirits. She dressed herself (though she had no interest in wearing the cute first-day-of-school outfit I'd bought for her), and she ate some breakfast before donning her backpack and walking out front to wait for the bus.



The aide who's going to help in the mornings isn't starting for a couple of days, but I thought, "Ah! So far, so good." And if the bus has arrived right on schedule,Vivian would have climbed right on without issue. Instead she waited about five minutes contently before pronouncing, "I don't want to go to school" and falling down on the sidewalk.





She stood up shortly thereafter and started walking toward the park in our neighborhood. Daddyman had returned from his morning run, and he followed after her.



Pretty soon he had her by the hand and they were headed back toward our house.



But still no bus.

I decided to go inside and call the driver at this point because they were now more than 15 minutes late. The driver answered and told me they were still at the bus depot filling up with gas (!) and that assuming they didn't hit traffic, they'd be at our house in 15 minutes. I expressed my unhappiness with this lack of preparedness on the first day, and the driver (who is wonderful and is usually quite prompt) apologized and said the bus depot was extremely unorganized this morning.

We brought Vivian back inside. I needed to make sure the other children were awake and moving toward being ready for school while Robert went upstairs to shower and dress for work. No more than a few minutes had passed before I went to check on Vivian and found her clothes on the floor and her back in bed with her pajamas on! Argh! I had to force Vivian out of her pajamas and back into her clothes, all the while with her telling me, "I'm so tired. I don't want to go to school. I want to go to sleep." I placated her by saying she could take her pillow and blanket on the bus, and I eventually succeeded in getting her clothes back on and leading her back downstairs. When the bus arrived (now 35 minutes late), Vivian agreed (albeit reluctantly) to climb on my back and let me carry her outside. She stepped onto the bus without further issue and was finally on her way!


Oops! Didn't get those shoes back on...



Meanwhile, Hockey Boy had showered and dressed (I think the only care he took with his outfit selection was that it NOT look like it was anything new or special - heaven forbid on the first day of his junior year). He was meeting some friends at a local breakfast spot and then driving himself to the high school.


Wouldn't want our hair to look like we fussed with it either



Dots has had her first-day-of-school attire and all myriad of accessories selected for quite some time now. She was completely dressed and ready way ahead of schedule and had even prepared her lunch (a wise and revered 6th grade friend had advised her to carry a lunch for the first week of school while she got the feel of how the cafeteria operates).



Robert and I drove Dots to school, walked her in and met her teacher.



When I entered her class to take a picture of her at her big 5th grade desk, Dots glared at me and uttered through clenced teeth, "No one else's parents are in here! Please leave!"



Sadly, I guess this will be our last year to walk anyone to their classroom on the first day of school. It seems like just yesterday that each of them was in kindergarten and didn't want me to leave.