Day 1 of 2,340

The school year in Arizona is 180 days.  That means that for a student to start in Kindergarten and go on to graduate from 12th grade they will attend school for 2,340 days (minus a few absences).

 

Spencer completed Day 1 yesterday.

 

The first day of Kindergarten.  Done.  I can't believe it.

 

I knew that I wanted to take a bunch of pictures of Spencer all over the house and in the front and back yards.  I want to do comparison photos every year and I'm not sure where I want to do them so we just went to a bunch of locations and we'll figure it out next year.  We actually took all of these pictures in less than 5 minutes.

 

The white board was a very last minute addition.  Luckily we had some white board markers in the house.

 

I like to think that we can compare his height to the height of that branch as they both grow.

Kindergarten students use a canvas tote bag instead of a backpack for the first semester.  We didn't take pictures with Spencer's new backpack because it seemed silly to since he wasn't going to take it to school.  I thought we'd do some pictures with it when he starts using it in January.  A little mid-semester photo shoot. 

 

We did pictures with his new lunch box instead.

 

Would you even call this a lunch box?  What is it?

 

We've been counting down to Kindergarten since the Father's Day countdown ended.

As soon as I got home I changed it to a double countdown- my birthday and Spencer's birthday.  They are only separated by 1 day, but Spencer insisted we had to do both because adding or subtracting to one was not OK.

We've been checking  Gymboree all summer for an acceptable first day outfit.  Acceptable meaning way, way, way on sale.  All of his first day outfits have been from Gymboree.  At his current size and growth rate I'll be able to continue buying from there until he's in 11th grade.

 

COMPARISON TIME!

 

Three years of preschool and Kindergarten

(And yes, it bothers me that three shirts are aquatic animals and one is not.  And yes, it also bothers me that there are two yellow shirts in a row.)

 

 The school was an absolute mad house when we got there.  I think every parent of every kid at that school was walking their kid to class on the first day.  Today was noticeably less parenty.

I could tell that Spencer was a little bit nervous because I am his mother.  To anybody else he seemed cool as a cucumber and totally in control.

He found his name on the table, took a seat, started playing with play-doh and immediately started chatting up his neighbors.  I, as the responsible and with-it mother, had forgotten his water bottle in the refrigerator so Elliott and I had to go home, get it and bring it back.  He seemed to be having a good time when I snuck back in the class 10 minutes later.

 

After we left school the 2nd time Elliott and I went to Lowe's and Home Depot.  We were looking for something specific that neither store had so we ended up browsing for some desired items.

 

My current obsessions are a new rug for the entry way,

 

and a new light for the entry way. 

 

I'm torn between a large pendant,

 

and a 3-light chandelier.

I was going to put Elliott in a regular cart at Home Depot, but he saw the cars and nearly threw himself out of my arms to get into that thing.  He didn't seem to miss his brother driving next to him one bit.

When it was time to leave I undid his seatbelt and and he started crying and tried to rebuckle it while saying no, no, no, no.  The kid likes his Home Depot.

Spencer wanted to go in the pool after dinner last night.  We said that it was too late because he needed to go to bed early since he had to get up for Kindergarten the next day.  He groaned and said he needed a break from school.

 

Great.  Day 1.  He needs a break.  Good luck with that, Spencer.