first day for jay
"thee you later" he said, with a wave and one more thing.
and that is how i left jasper on his first day of kindy. sitting on the floor, having just pulled out a mat, two cups, some beads and a spoon. charles and i had just ducked out for a minute, to let jasper get acclimatised, and he certainly did. rather quickly.
the first morning was quite exciting for everyone, but jasper. he woke up to sebastian saying, "today you come to my school, jasper! small world christian kindergarten!"
and his sisters looking at him rather resentfully, wailing routinely like the greek chorus they can be, "i did a poopers in the toilet, i want to go to miss gail’s school too!" (miss gail is the principal of small world)
he got dressed and had his backpack on a good 45 minutes before we were ready to leave. not his shoes or socks mind you (nor uniform!), but the all important backpack which, "i wear to big boy thcool." i didn’t bother wearing makeup, because the best offense is a good defense (when else to remember this but on super bowl monday?) my nose was getting runny, and i rarely wear makeup anyway, so why bother having pictures of this unfamiliar makeup if it was just going to be smeared with the tears i suspected were lingering too close to the surface? sebastian was uttering edicts and reminders, the girls were circling around me, grabbing my jeans and begging to come along as well, the phone was ringing, typical morning business…and on top of it all charles and i were trying to grab a moment to say, "when did this happen?" (at left, Jasper talks to mo and grandad blake, "yeth, grandad bake, i’ll athk about prethus metals at thchool, yeth I agree, buy low.")
a few pictures, and we were in the car, and sebastian was telling jasper (who was looking out the window and singing dorothy the dinosaur) where the bathrooms were. we parked at small world, and walked into the school, jasper not wanting to run ahead, but not wanting to hold my hand, either. me wanting to hold his, but not wanting him to need to hold mine. holding charles’ instead. not making eye contact, but squeezing his instead. (left, tess and jasper getting out of the car.)
talking to sebastian’s teacher, i get waylaid and don’t drop off jasper for that all important first entry into the classroom. that might get him 20 years of therapy, but hey, there’s four kids in team caldwell, and each are important. i got something straightened out with sebastian’s delightful teacher and then hustled to jasper’s class, where he was already racing around. we took him to the lavatory, and then popped him back into the classroom. my friend denby, whose girls are in that class, had prepped her girls to be on the lookout for jasper and they greeted him warmly, which he lurrved. (surprise!) we stayed outside for a few moments, and then leaned into the classroom to say goodbye to jasper, who looked up, smiled, said his farewell and did one other thing. (left, miss gail, jasper and sebastian.)
and magnificent and i, caught up in parenting three other children, working, living and loving, never got the chance to look at each other and say, and i know so many of you can relate to this, and please answer me, "how did this happen? how did one kilogram become one kindergarten boy?"
and if you’re wondering what the one more thing jasper gave me with the wave was, it was a kiss.
Hop over to Charles’ blog to see yet more pics!
