Firsts

Today was the first day of school. I have pictures, but for a handful of reasons, I can't access them. I'll work on that and see if I can add them at a future date. You'll just have to trust that they exist.

We decided to walk today. We'd looked up the route and practiced the walk last week. This morning we left with plenty of time and made it all the way there with Phoebe walking and the stroller full of school supplies for the boys' classes. On the way back I was starting to tire and I wondered if I'd read the distance correctly. When we got home I looked it up. It was a two-mile round trip, which is a touch longer than I had planned on.

We found Peter's room first. He had been really excited to play the role of the big brother and walk Cooper to his class each morning, so he was visibly disappointed to learn that his class had an external door and that he would not be entering the main part of the building at all. Add to that his teacher is very strict and she used M&Ms (which may be contaminated with peanuts and therefore off-limits to Peter) for a major class activity and didn't understand why Peter wouldn't go near them, and his first day was a little rough. The nurse at this school is fantastic, but I'm wondering if a little more instruction needs to happen with his teacher. I'll be stopping to talk to the nurse tomorrow when I take Peter, if I can convince him to go back.

Cooper had a better day. He was quite nervous and told me several times that he didn't want to go, he'd rather just stay home. He also unleashed all kinds of naughty on us this morning, which I think was probably an outcropping of the anxiety. Once we started walking though, he calmed down. His teacher is very sweet and chatted with me about plans to help Cooper stay dry (since he regularly refuses to use the bathroom) while he confidently unloaded the two bags of stuff we'd acquired for the class. At the end of the day he ran toward me with a huge grin and reported that he had recess and lunch and colored and played and went on a tour of the school.

And the best part? He was dry! We asked Cooper if his teacher had had him use the bathroom and his response was, "Yeah, a lot!"

Phoebe and I had a girl day that included going to the library, Walmart, and watching My Little Pony. She had a ball. Cooper doesn't go back until Monday and I'm afraid that she's not quite ready to go back to sharing me.

So it was good for Cooper and Phoebe, but the day could have been better for Peter.