First day = done!

Mateo had a great first day today!  The kids and I got ourselves together early this morning and drove Mateo to school, only to find absolute parking insanity happening when we got there.  We live only about 5 minutes from school and had left with plenty of time to spare, but arrived to find a huge traffic jam going into campus and then a massive, sports-stadium-like parking disaster inside.  The main parking lot was completely full and the overflow lot was also full.  There was literally nowhere to park, and people were circling like vultures looking for slots.  It became clear much later that there was an upper school convocation thing happening at the same time as the drop-off time for little kids and it just exceeded the parking lot's capacity.  Poor Mateo was getting very worried that we were going to circle forever and never find a space, but then, luckily, someone finally pulled out in front of us and we parked.  Whew!

We went in and there was quite a crowd there already, as the kindergarten and pre-K parents were all dropping off at the same time.  We found Mateo's cubby and shoehorned all his stuff into it (lunch, snack, water bottle, change of clothes, rain boots (necessary from day one because of the little manufactured creek that runs through their playground), and backpack).  Poor Natalia was completely overwhelmed by all the people, but she hung in there. Then, we went into the classroom, where Mateo's teacher greeted him and sat him down to play with wooden tiles along with all the other kids who were already there.

I could barely say goodbye to him because I was so choked up, but Tali and I both gave him hugs and wished him a good day and then we were out and his day had started!  He seemed completely fine - no tears or looking over his shoulder or anything.  It reinforced my gut feeling that he is totally ready for this.  We went outside to try to join the parent coffee, but Tali was overwhelmed by all the chatting adults and Rosie was trying out her loudest vocal inflections, so I ended up just taking them to the playground for a few minutes instead of talking to the other parents.

From there, the girls and I went on to have a full day.  We went to OMSI for the whole morning and part of the afternoon and then came home briefly to play before picking up Mateo.  I have to say, it was pretty jarring to go right from the emotional drop-off moments to regular, everyday mom stuff again.  I wish there had been some way for me to have a few quiet minutes to regroup before embarking on the day with the girls...but, that was impossible, and it did make it impossible for me to mope around feeling sentimental!

Tali and Rosie and I had a lot of fun together at OMSI.  I think Tali really liked being able to decide where she wanted to go and how long she wanted to stay at each exhibit.  I mean, I usually let the two big kids decide together, or alternate deciding if they're having a hard time, but I'm sure it was very different and fun to get to choose things completely on her own!  We stayed at OMSI for almost 4 hours!  Fun was had by all.  Rosie even held off on napping until 1 pm, when we left, which is way late for her.  She was asleep within seconds of getting strapped into her carseat!

Before we knew it, it was time to get our big boy again.  From what he said about his first day, it sounds like it was a resounding success.  He loves the school, his teacher, and is excited to have made a friend today.  His favorite part of the day was their visit to the lower school library, which we reprised after we picked him up.  Our book-obsessed boy practically dragged the girls and me straight there.  In fact, one of the most impressive things about the day, to me, was that the librarian greeted Mateo by name when we walked in after school.  I was so impressed that he remembered him after meeting him only one time!

Tomorrow is another day, and is going to be the first day when both big kids are in school at the same time!  I am hoping that Tali will have a good day at school, as she has been very quiet during her last couple of days there.  Here's hoping that she's just adjusting and that she will come out of her shell a bit more as time goes on.

Here are the first day photos of both kiddos.  I'm just so proud of both of them!