Kindergarten (and 3rd Grade) Here We Come...

Well, Bryson and Camryn started school this past Monday. I can't believe that my kids are officially 'school-aged!' I'm so weird - on Camryn's first day of Kindergarten, I didn't cry. At our school, each class walks out and down the brick wall together each day to wait for moms and dads. On the last day of Kindergarten, after watching those 14 bodies grow all year, seeing them begin to read and form friendships that might last for years, on that day when I saw them walk out like they had done so many times before, I bawled like a baby! I couldn't believe that they were big enough to soon be in 1st grade!

I have recently thought back to Brion and me, sitting on our bed in Bastrop, Texas, holding a tiny, tiny baby girl and planning our future. We were laughing and talking about far, far in the future when Camryn would start school! How did that day (that previously seemed like light years in the future) come? How is she not even one of the 'little kids' at school anymore?

When I became pregnant with Bryson, I quickly remembered some things that I had somehow forgotten from Camryn's pregnancy! Bryson starting Kindergarten brought back something similar. Although I remembered not crying on Cam's first day, I didn't remember how it would hit me at random times that she was starting school. Last Friday, after visiting Bryson's classroom and meeting his God-sent teacher and having lunch and playing with our dear friends, the Ramsey's, we were helping JoDee in her classroom. Bryson came up and hugged me like he does often, and I just lost it! At that moment, I remembered doing the same thing with Camryn! It's funny the things we remember so adamantly and the things we file somewhere back in our memory!

Bryson is doing great at school. That is, when he gets there. This year, our school started full day Kindergarten which actually works out great for us, but for the first 2 weeks, they are releasing the Kindergarten students at 12pm. Even though his days are shorter than his preschool days were right now, he already thinks he needs a break! When Bryson was in preschool, I helped him keep track of days by telling him that he would go to school for 3 days and then he would have 4 days off. Now, of course, we have 5 days at school and 2 days off. The first night, he asked if he had a day off yet. The next morning, he said that his 'spine and chicken bone' hurt (that's a shoulder blade if you don't live in our house:)) and this morning, he thought that we needed a 'family stay home day' because it was Brion's birthday! He's pretty creative, you gotta give him that! And again, I'm remembering Camryn having the same problem coming to terms with the fact that after starting school, our carefree days are gone forever. After that first day of school, we all really become subject to someone else's timeclock!

Camryn is enjoying being back. She loves seeing her friends again, and I think she loves Bryson being there, too. She is definitely glad that our school has eased up on the uniform policy this year! She has me roll her hair almost every night!

It's so fun to watch her develop into a thoughtful, drama-loving, mature, picky, mini-me! I love the innocence she still enjoys. I love the signs that growing up is on the horizon. I truly like this girl!

I thank God for their school and their teachers and a staff that loves them. I thank God that Brion and I share the same heart for these kids. I thank God for what He's put into each of them - it is such a joy to watch them come into their own. I thank God that Camryn is across the hall from JoDee, who she considers a 2nd mother! They are stinkers, and I am blessed! They are exhausted tonight as they wind down their first week of a new school year. Truly, these are the days!!!