One down...12 more to go.

Monday was Joshua's first day of real school ever. Sure, he's done preschool, but this is the big time. And not only did he start Kindergarten...it is officially all day Kindergarten in my neck of the woods.

Lucky for me, I had a whole lot of things to do and people to see yesterday, so I barely had a chance to reflect on the monumental occasion. He was very excited to get there that morning, and when I missed the right entrance and had to go around the block he said, "Mommy! Hurry up or school will be closed!"

As I drove away and watched him in my rear view mirror, he jabbered happily away to the nice lady who was walking him to the door. He didn't need me any more. Not an easy thing to accept as a mom, and especially not for a control freak mom who will probably duke it out with any potential girlfriends for most affection. Yep, I'm that mom.

When I picked him up from school he was very happy to see me and said he wanted to play video games. I asked how school was and he said, "Good. But, mom...there are no computers. There are ZERO computers." We celebrated the moment with Dairy Queen, the official first day of school tradition starting now.

Today I had more time to think about him being gone. It was a bit more sad when I watched him walking all by himself this time to the front door. Apparently these 5 year olds don't need coddling much beyond the first day. "Get out there and figure it out kid!" I know they have to grow up, and I'm thrilled that he's reached this milestone, but man it's hard letting go.

I thought about him all day and wondered if today would be better or worse. I was able to walk over to get him this time, and the brightness on his face when he came bursting out of the front doors made all my worrying seem beyond ridiculous. He was so happy and talked about school and Mrs. Ritenour and the kids all the way home.

I suppose the first day of school will get better the older he gets. Or maybe it will get worse. When he's 16 and driving himself to school, and embarrassed that his mom wants to take a picture of him, I will be sad all over again...but this time for a different reason.