Bittyman's First Day of Kindergarten

I just dropped Bittyman off at his first day of kindergarten. We met his teacher at orientation last week and the three of us were thrilled to discover that Mrs. B. is the mother of one of Bitty's Sunday School classmates. Bittyman is in wonderful hands.

Bitty was "very excited" all morning long, picking out a "cool new outfit" and proudly posing for the above pictures. When we arrived at school he was annoyed that he didn't have time to play on the kindergarten playground until Mrs. B. assured him they'd go out for recess later.

But as his class lined up to walk into their room, Bitty anxiously looked up at me and whispered, "Mom, I'm scared!"

I choked back tears, wanting to cry, "I'm scared too! I'm not ready to let you go!"

Instead Diva Mom took over and whispered back, "You know what, it's OK to be scared. I bet every kid in this line is a little bit scared. But just think of all the fun you're going to have. And I'll be back soon to pick you up and take you to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate!"

"OH, RIGHT! I forgot about Chuck E Cheese! OK, bye! I love you!" And with visions of greasy pizza and arcade games dancing in his eyes he proudly marched into his room, not once looking back.

I waved until the bright blue classroom door shut behind him. Then with the click of the metal latch the tears began to stream down my face behind my sunglasses. At that point I didn't care. My goal was accomplished - Bittyman never saw me cry.

I looked around and noticed that there were two obvious groups of Moms. The bawling ones, like myself, whose first-born children were starting kindergarten. Then there were the gals doing a happy dance and cheering, "FREE AT LAST!" who have already gone through this day with their older kids.

Since then I've texted my entire address book a picture of Bitty in front of his school, drove home and put Ittyboy down for his nap, made a tearful call to Daddy to tell him how it went, uploaded these pictures and wrote this blog post. Now it's already time to go pick up Bitty.

Good thing 'cause Diva Mom wants her Little Hero back.