Our Little 'Saint'

In the blur of the past few months, there have been several monumental milestones for the McAllister family. Rex's first day of Kindergarten is one of them. Yes, Rex is officially a 'Saint'- and no, I'm not referring to his angelic behavior. On August 26th, Rex joined the family of the St. Mary's Saints as he started his first day of Kindergarten. Doesn't he look adorable in his uniform?

Usually, Michael takes Rex to school in the morning, and I pick him up in the afternoon (gotta love the carpool line...). But on the first day, Michael dropped us off in front of the school, and I walked Rex into the courtyard to line up with his class. Rex was a little nervous, but very anxious to start the school year. He was a little disappointed that he doesn't get to ride a school bus, but he was so excited to find out that one of his friends from preschool is in his class.

On that first morning, when it was time to walk with the teacher into the school, the other little boy grabbed Rex's hand, and they walked off together. It was adorable. It's as though they were sure they would be okay as long as they stayed together.

Unfortunately, there was no one there to hold my hand as I cried the whole way back to meet Michael at the car. I wasn't so sure I would be okay. Rex had always been with me. From the time he was born, and even when I went back to work when he was six months old, he's been with me. Even as he went through the different preschool classrooms, it was only for a half-day, and he was still just down the hall. And his teachers were people that I knew and trusted. Now, I have to send him across town, to a completely different school, with complete strangers, for an entire day. It's a little hard to let go. But we have both survived, and he is doing really well. His teacher is strict, (which we love) and it works well for him. She keeps him in line, and he really likes her. There are also two assistants in the class that help the children rotate through their different centers (Reading, Math, Language Arts, etc). In addition to the centers that they do in the classroom, they have six different "specials" that they rotate through on a six day schedule. The specials include Media (which we always knew as library), Spanish, Phys. Ed., Computer, Music, and Art. Rex loves having a different "special" to look forward to each day. After eating lunch in the classroom for the first few weeks, the kindergarteners took a big step earlier this month, and now they eat in the cafeteria just like the older grades. They even have the option of buying their lunch (yay!), and Rex loves chicken nuggets and pizza days. He has really grown up in the past few months. It's hard to believe that he has begun a journey that will end with him leaving home. Time is going to fly by... but we're looking forward to the fun ride.