eli's first day

the night before eli's first day, the doorbell rang. i opened the door and there was ms. rhonda, his barn school teacher. i was handed an envelope. i closed the door and eli and i headed towards his room to tuck him in for the night. i sat on the edge of his bed, opened the envelope and found the cutest pictures from eli's last days at the barn and four cd's with a years worth of barn school pictures. 

two pencils also filled the envelope along with this letter...

i worked so hard to hold back my emotions over the past few weeks. i didn't want eli to see just how sad i was. this letter brought tears to my eyes and i couldn't hide them. i went into the craft room, sharpened those two pencils and put them in eli's backpack. 

that night, with both my e's sound asleep, i packed eli's lunch. i made an extra gooey peanut butter & jelly sandwich along with some treats we normally don't have. i wrote a simple note, tucked it in his lunchbox and laid his clothes out on a chair. 

i tossed and turned all night. i woke early the next morning, got myself ready and an excited eli woke all on his own. he ate breakfast, got dressed, brushed his hair and teeth, put on his shoes, grabbed his lunch and backpack and we headed outside. 

we drove towards the school which is a mere 2 minutes away. but when he saw all the other children walking to school, he asked me to pull over so we could walk the rest of the way. i did, and we walked, hand in hand, into the building, down the hall and into room 20. he sat next to emily, posed for a quick picture and off he went to kindergarten land. 

it was an amazing first day. amazing. the peace that covered me on sunday, overflowed into monday. he returned to me at 3pm with a huge grin on his face. 

we both survived the first day of kindergarten. i like to think eli is just as proud of me as i am of him.