Today was bitter-sweet

I have been looking forward to this week since last fall when I registered little r for Kindergarten.  It would not be an exaggeration to say that the little man is quite bored with his mom and he is craving not only friends his age, but also some more routine in his life.  I can hardly blame him.  I'm pretty bored with myself as well, and my life is definitely craving a little regularity.

So, today was the day...well, the "official" first day of Kindergarten is 1 February, but the director called me and said I could bring him in a couple days before so that he can meet the other kids and slowly feel comfortable there before I walk away and leave him for several hours.  In my heart I knew he would not only be ok, but that he would thrive in the environment they provide at this amazing school.

I prepared little r for his first day all weekend.  We took the puppy for a walk so I could point out the school and start talking to him about it.  I know this probably wasn't necessary, but I wanted Kindergarten to seem special to little r and have it not be just like any other daycare. I wanted him to look forward to his time at school... By this morning, he was all too ready for this new adventure we'd now been talking about for days.

The walk from home to the Kindergarten was a tad bit farther than I had remembered it being.  It's probably just shy of a mile.  I noticed that they have a special area to "park" your stroller for those days when little r doesn't seem up for the trek (or my arms are too tired to carry him!).  I want to vow to myself never to try not to ever get too frantic where I can't at least do this walk to drop him off and pick him up each day.  If nothing else, the puppy will appreciate it!

If I had any anxiety about today, it dissipated within minutes of walking into the doors of the Kindergarten.  Little r was given free range to discover every nook and crannie of the building while I filled out some paperwork and went over things with his teacher.

 It turns out his teacher was incredibly modest about her ability to speak English; she speaks it very well making things even easier for me today.  There is also another American boy in little r's class, which will be good for him, although I don't think he'll have any problems and I am confident he will learn German quickly.

Today was all about introducing me and little r to the Kindergarten.  He got his own cubbie for his things; he has a drawer assigned to him to keep his "projects"; and there is a mailbox for me to get the monthly newsletter.  After all the formalities were taken care of, I was allowed to just watch little r play.  This is something I don't get to do very often in this type of setting, and it was great to see him interacting with the other children. I was a little nervous that he would have some trouble because he's in that terrible phase where he doesn't like to share and he can be very weird about his personal space. But he fit in right away, and I think it's safe to say he is already making friends with a couple of the kids.

When we gathered our things to head home, little r ran over to his teacher and gave her a kiss on the cheek. It was adorable!  Guess he is learning quickly how to become a teacher's pet.

I'm going to miss my little buddy.  We've been through so much together these past six months. I know though that this will be good for both of us.  Yeah, today is a very bitter sweet day...