His First Day (Year 2)
In our minds, we are totally still 24 years old, though on certain days, we're reminded that unequivocally, we are not kids any more, in fact, we have our own kid now! We had one of those days last week when James started his second year at the fabulous St. John's Presbyterian Nursery School. This school was absolutely a God-send for us and has certainly been such a special place for James to transition from baby to little boy. The directors and the teachers of the school have been such a joy to work with and we trust them implicitly with Jamesie--we are so blessed!
It's amazing the difference a year makes. Here's my post from his first day of preschool last year. Some things don't change, as Mommy and Daddy still wear their work-out clothes, un-showered finest in the first day pictures (I guess it wasn't in last year's post, but we have a very similar pic of the 3 of us, on our porch looking equally as rough).
Naturally, moments before leaving for this first day, things suddenly turned from excitement to drama (we're still not sure what happened exactly). James literally sulked across the front yard, arms crossed over his chest, refusing to go to school. We finally wrangled him into the car, and reminded him that this year, he would be able to carry a special new lunch box (a perfect gift from his newly be-friended 5th cousin, Crosby--and his mama, Leslie--who we hung out with at the family reunion this summer) with his name on it, no less (soo southern - I love it!). The world somehow seemed to be a better place for him.
By the time we picked him up from school a few hours later, he was again hard to wrangle, but this time, it was because he was absolutely in heaven. The school has a gigantic fig tree that seems to watch over the sweet little school and it's students (a friend of ours actually played under that tree when he went to school there many years ago), and as we watched James run in and out of its shade, we could not help but reminisce on how quick time passes. Before we blink twice, he will be off to his first day of kindergarten, then to junior high, then college. Though such milestones reinforce the fact that our time here is so short, going by faster and faster with each year, for me, those times just make me more grateful that I am here to watch my son experience his life. Whether he's off pouting with his little arms crossed or running through the trees, squealing with child-like glee, this mommy is going to try her best to love every one of those moments.