First day… First Grade
We were all little nervous this morning. It’s a new school year… a new classroom… a new grade. Unlike most of his friends from last year, Boy Wonder isn’t “looping” into first grade with the same class and teacher. Which meant a whole new environment to go along with all the new clothes. No amount of “cool dude black clothes” prepares you for a new teacher. And in this heat wave, you don’t get to wear the “Cool dude black clothes” because you can’t risk passing out from heat at recess. That would be so not cool! But a first grader has standards– as I soon discovered when we tried to get dressed this morning.
ME: Wow… that’s a great outfit (trying to be up and hide the fact I’m really sad his summer is over. I don’t really trust public schools– but I’m a little whacked!)
Boy Wonder: Um… yeah… but Mom?
ME: Yeah?
Boy Wonder: The pants are a little loose… and are shirts really supposed to be THIS long? (Pulling his shirt down to his knees…)
—–OK… I will admit that I bought the clothes a tad large this year… the kid is STILL growing from this summer. But only in an attempt to keep his pants from being floods before November. I also maybe sorta forgot to “shrink” them ( a little known practice where you wash the clothes first in coolish water and “pretend” that they now fit perfectly.)
ME: Well… they aren’t THAT big…
Boy Wonder: Look! (lifting his shirt to show me how his underwear peeked over his waistline)
ME: Sheesh… just keep your shirt down. No one is going to look… they aren’t that big.
Boy Wonder: Yes they are… (Pulling his shorts still buttoned down to his knees…) SEE!!!
ME: I see.
Somehow we managed to get dressed. (In a new shirt that had been through the “shrinking” process and an old pair of shorts covered in paint that Boy Wonder said wasn’t as noticeable as his pants falling down. Ok… so maybe he had a point.) Maybe it’s just a girl thing and maybe I’m just a girl… but I thought the whole point of the first day of school was to wear your new clothes? You are supposed to be excited about it… not dreading it. Who cares if they are a little big for you? It means you have potential! You are going to grow into them. Right?
We dropped the new first grader off and came home to sit out the five hours. Would it be a good day? Would his new teacher give him a chance? Did he eat his lunch out of his Zip Lock bag because his parents FORGOT to buy him a new lunch box and no self respecting first grader would be caught dead using a “Bob the Builder” box? (Georges: people will laugh… but I still like the show, ok?) S i g h. There’s not nearly enough coffee to prepare you for first grade.
So how was it? Well… his CLOTHES had a good day! His blue shirt was covered with dirt (from the garden and TWO recesses… count them!) and his shorts with paint on them looked like they belonged in first grade. His teacher met him at the door and gave him an iced oatmeal cookie.
You have to admire a teacher who understands that while the first grader will love her eternally for the cookie on the first day… so will his parents!
