First of First

Today was G's first day of First Grade. He couldn't have been more excited. He picked pancakes for his last meal of summer and played wiffle ball and legos to fill his time before bed. He got exactly one new shirt for back to school shopping, excited and proud because it was a "learning shirt" from Lands End, complete with a glow-in-the-dark moon and fast facts about said moon. He's an easy kid to please. No new backpack, shoes, or lunchbox. No demanding of any fancy school supplies but sheer excitement at the thought of heading to Staples to pick up the items on his "required" list (5 yellow pencils--sharpened, one yellow highlighter, 2 glue sticks). His favorite color is yellow, so that combined with his love of office supplies made school shopping with him a treat. L of course had to get in on the action and was very excited to get his very own blue pencil box, glue, and scissors-the nemeses of every 3 year old. The only hard part for G was trying to control his excitement last night to get to sleep. Poor kid was out of bed every 15 minutes to tell me "I'm too excited to sleep". As a mother, and a self-admitted control freak, I wanted to badly to be able to be able to fix this for him-to give him the tools to manage his emotion and help him get some rest. It took until 10 pm and my final threat, that he wouldn't be able to go to school if he didn't get some sleep to finally get him to settle in. Luckily, he'll run on pure adrenaline today and won't feel the lack of sleep until the long weekend. Though I'm sitting behind my desk today, my mind is with my heart today off in the big wide world with my boys and not focused on the tasks at hand. First time having a locker, the bathroom down the hall, new wing of school, new friends and classmates. He was one of the smartest in the class last summer, did her lose a step on other kids over the summer? Is he still feeling bad because he's almost 7 and doesn't have any wiggly teeth? And how's baby brother without the big kids? Texts from his nanny tell me he's happy and he's taking over as the "leader" of the pack, but is he lonely? is he sad that he doesn't get to go have big kid experiences? a whole week can go by and he doesn't even leave the street, is he jealous of Grant's world? Is he living the high life of having all the attention for a few hours instead of being dragged around to all of G's things? My mind is supposed to be on planning a retreat for my students, students who are living through their own transitions right now. I'm supposed to help guide them and help them thrive. My role is the same in the life of my little, big, and work-kids right now. I'm a busy mommy and nothing makes me happier. All the same, I'm counting the hours until I can leave and go pick up my big kid from the bus and hear ever moment of his first day back, my college kids will just have to wait a few more hours for their attention!