The New Day Begins

Yesterday was Ian's first day of First Grade. Amy, Daniel, Ruthie and Golden [the dogs] and I all saw him off as the big yellow bus, full of much bigger kids than last year's Kindergarten express, picked him up at the end of our driveway. Only Madeleine missed the ceremony, and only because she was still asleep. Needless to say, the Nikon captured everything, in video mode.

Ian seemed to grasp the solemnity of the occasion as he stood in the driveway with Daniel, their heads bowed toward each other almost like someone was telling a secret. At that point, Ian told his brother, "I'll see you at the end of the day, Daniel. I'm gonna be gone all day. ...Can you make sure Madeleine doesn't tease Golden?"

[To be honest, I'm a bit sad that Ian doesn't get to spend the bulk of the day "en famille" any more, although I kept my sentimentality to myself. I felt a bit of relief at 3:05 yesterday at work, when I knew his school day was finally over.]

Ian came home with an orange sticker on his shirt with a tiger's paw on it, a reference to his new school's mascot, and he wore it for the rest of the day. He told me that if his class can be good in line for a whole month, they'll get a much larger gold tiger-paw sticker. Apparently his class came in first in the Good Behavior Olympics, as it were, scoring five points yesterday while the other classes all got only three.

At supper last night, I asked the boys how their day had been. Daniel's account was highly credible: "Kind of a little bit boring without Ian."