Matthew's First Days of School

I know that ever post I make is about my precious children. But oh how I love them. Oh, how I want to capture every minute. Well, almost every minute. It's good that our memories pick the best to keep. The best of the best and the best of the "worst." You know and Libby knows: the rough spots make the best stories.

Those kids teach me so much every day. And it's mostly more about love than I ever could have known without them.

My Matthew's first day of school was Tuesday, and while he kept talking about school, but then saying, "no," he had a great visit to his classroom on Monday where he got reacquainted with his room from last year at Mother's Morning Out, some old friends, and teachers, too. But with 12 kiddos in his class, he has lots of new friends to make this year, too. On a side note, we lucked out again about peanut allergies - none in his class (though there is one with tree nut allergies, so no almond butter at school for him.)

So after we got Libby on the road early Tuesday morning, it was time to enjoy Matthew and get his little self to his first day of the Ones at St. Cats.

I put a decent bit of time and effort into finding him the perfect lunchbox, and it seems to have paid off. He loves it and insisted on holding it or displaying it in some way for most of the photos.

Getting photos of this guy NOT in motion is a real challenge, by the way. And it was rather rainy this week, so we got most inside.

Outside, he was more of a flight risk anyway.

He was happy to get to school and very chatty the whole way about Libby being at Kindergarten and Matthew going to Libby's school (he's big on third-person speech at this point.) We hear a lot of "Matthew's runnin'" or "Matthew's funny!"

We also hear a lot of "Honey, Honey" where he's asking to hear is favorite Abba song. Unfortunately it is not on my Abba's Greatest Hits CD, but thank goodness for phones, computers and access to YouTube.

I got a bit sad the WHOLE time he was at school, and I did again today, but I also accomplished a great day. August is always a work challenge. And today, I even got to have lunch with Libby at her school! (More on that in the next blog.)

When Libby got home from school both days, she asked all about how his school days were - and during Monday's visit, we got to also see Libby's old teacher, Ms. Lori, who asked all about her and told us the special place she has in her heart for Libby.

But more on Matthew. He's so cute. And fun. And Ms. Suzanne is there for the first few weeks of school, who holds a special place for Matthew. You could tell last year, and today, she took him from me, and was also the one to give him back, with a gesture of her hands over her heart in a hug and told me, "I just LOVE him," with a shake of her head and a twinkle in her eye.

Same here, Ms. Suzanne!

I got a couple of photos of the Bouck after school on Monday from the director, and she included, "He's just the happiest."

He IS the happiest! And today was another great one.

He gave me THIS for this morning's pic...

But on Wednesday, and of course every day, we get some special time. But Wednesday, we found a break in the weather and went over to the Big Park. Matthew loved swinging with me and on his own, climbing, sliding and the waterfall, just like his big sis.

Peek-a-boo!

He took a GIANT step to get across (while holding my hand.)

He also loved taking a cruise in the cars there. 

I miss him when he's in the next room, so school - and my last baby starting school - is a lot to take. His upper canines are coming in now too and they are giving him some hassle at times poor guy. But he's a lot of fun, too.

Here's a little video of the guy being funny while we talked with Daddy on the phone. He kept saying, "Mama" in an urgent tone and I'd jerk my head toward him. This vide of course is the tail end of a series of that going on, but it's cute just the same.



We've also been reading the "UGA teaches the ABC's" book this week, and he'll tell me, "Go Dawgs!" Ahh, just in time for football season!

Oh the charm of Mr. Bobo.