Rah Rah School!

I woke up in cheerleader mode this morning for my kids first day of school. In my mind, it was my first day of school as well and I had a stomach ache and sleep deprivation to battle in addition to my own guilty feelings for having my kids start at yet another school. On our drive over, my palms were sweaty and I was glad I took a swig of Mylanta before we left the house.

Silence in our mini van comes around only once in a blue moon. If the stars align and they all take a nap on a long car trip, Paul and I will experience a quiet so rare that it makes us uneasy. I could sense that Max and Natalie’s nerves were getting the best of them but couldn’t think of anything that would not solicit any eye roll so I stayed quiet. Paul reminded them it was only a half-day and that he would see them at noon. The tension lifted.

It was a flurry of kids and cameras, backpacks, strollers and lunch boxes when we arrived in front of the school. The parents seemed to outnumber the children and they all knew each other; handshakes, pats on the back, hugs and conversations about yoga classes buzzed in my ears. Our newbie status was confirmed when several teachers walked up to me with that look of pity, you know the one that people give you when one looks like a fish out of water.

As I watched Maxwell march up the steps to his new school, he looked over his shoulder with a half-smile, the one he gives me when he is trying to reassure me, rather than the other way around. He wasn’t in cheerleader mode but he was clearly more ready than I was for the first day of school.