We have a Second grader

Wow... I remember when I saw the two lines on the test telling me we were having a baby, now he's a second grader.  Second grade is a year of big adjustment and there is a lot of responsibility placed on the kids - it's less of Mom and Dad reminding them to do the homework and more of them remembering to do it on their own.

Again, we hit the jackpot with the teacher. Mrs. M... she is AMAZING! We had parent orientation the other night and heard the rules and regulations and she just talked about developing awesome little people - she is right in line with my mindset on education - that we are partners and it's not just her teaching him, it's everyone.

He has a new friend, a little boy that's on his football team. Oh, yeah, he's playing football now! Back to the story, though, more about football later. His new friend, A, is such a cutie. On the first day of school, the plan was to drop Jackson off and he goes in on his own (which, seriously, who thinks of this crap? In Kindergarten and First grade, they went to their classroom for the screening/assessment tests, so at least they had seen it before. In second and beyond, nope, nada.) They encourage parents not to come in, again, it's about building responsibility.

We pull up to go around the carpool lane, in line with all the other families and I look in my rear view mirror and just see a sad little guy, trying not to let me see his tears. I pulled into a parking space and asked what was wrong. He said, "Mom, I'm just nervous. I don't know where I'm going. I tried to be brave, but I can't." Ben and I told him to calm down, I would go with him.

While we waited outside the school, the little boy, A, recognized Jackson from football and Jackson made the first move. He said, "Hey, A." They started talking and A said he didn't know where he was going either, so Jackson invited him to walk in with us and the rest is history. They are inseparable. In second grade, the teacher allowed them to choose their desk neighbor and their own locker buddy. They chose each other.

We have noticed that Parker talks non-stop since Jackson is gone all day. We didn't really notice just how much they played together I guess. But, next Tuesday, Parker becomes a preschooler.

And for now, the pictures will have to be sideways. Blogger isn't reading them right and won't let me flip them. (In that top one, Parker chose that and told me he was allowed to wear that to school.)