First day of FIRST grade!

I cannot believe that my SEVEN year old "baby" started FIRST grade today! It's amazing to think back at how much he has changed in the last year. I was totally freaking out last year about him starting kindergarten. I just wasn't sure if he was socially/emotionally ready.

I opted for him to be transported by the school van (which he "qualified" for due to his visual impairment and having an IEP and all that) because I could not imagine him riding the bus and I had no way to get him back and forth myself. This year I can SO see him riding the bus...and he will once we move in to our house.

Oh wait...I guess I haven't really updated on our living situation at the moment! I've really been slacking when it comes to blogging :-P. We found another house (one we like even more than the last one). A few things were found in the home inspection that we want fixed and we're waiting to hear back on if they're going to take care of hem. On Friday the 20th, the kids and I moved from our apartment to Joe's mom and dad's where we're staying until we (hopefully) close on the house, (again hopefully) the beginning of October. Ryan could be enrolled in school in the district "our" house is in even though we aren't living there yet. I just have to drive him back and forth until we move in (it's between 10 and 15 minutes away). And then he will start riding the bus and he is so excited. If the bus doesn't work out then I'll start taking him and picking him up again. The school is only a 2 minute drive from the house.

Back to today....I had to wake Ryan up at 7:45 this morning to get ready when he's been up by 7-7:30 pretty much every day all summer long. Of course. This lead to him being "in a mood" for the first 10 minutes or so of being awake, but luckily he snapped out of it and got dressed and ate breakfast and "got happy"...lol. I took his picture (above) before we left...I probably should have taken it inside. He's so sensitive to sunlight even when he's not directly in it. Still a cute pic :-). I wanted to walk him in since it was the first day and I wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or where he was supposed to go so I couldn't prepare him and wasn't sure how he would react. We went in to the office and the secretary told me I could walk him to his classroom. I stayed long enough to let his teacher know I had written her a note and put it in his backpack because I knew if I stayed too long that he would end up crying. Brooke was pointing in classrooms the whole way out yelling "I need to go in there!". LOL. She really missed him today and couldn't wait for us to go pick him up.

We went to the school about 20 minutes early to get him because I wasn't sure how crazy it would be. It doesn't seem like it will be too bad, but I'll probably try to go that early every day because I think it will just be easier. He was smiling when he came out of the school and told me he had a great day :-). His teacher ended up calling me this evening, which scared me at first, but she told me right away that she just felt like there was more I wanted to say to her this morning but it was so hectic. So we talked for a good 10-15 minutes and I filled her in a little more on Ryan and how last year was for him. She hasn't gotten his IEP yet, so I was telling her more about that. She told me she was really glad she called and I am, too. Seems he's gotten lucky two years in a row now, getting teachers that really care and don't just do the bare minimum to get by. Here's hoping for another awesome year of school for him :-).

Tomorrow the plan is to *just drop him off and he will go in to the school by himself and to his classroom. I am hoping he doesn't freak out, but I'm pretty sure he'll be ok. At least he knows what to do and where to go and his classroom is really easy to find.

I'm going to *try to blog more often again! ;-)