Well, The Worst Is Over (Or At Least I Hope!)

I am so not a morning person. I never have been. I can remember one summer, in my early teen years (before the age of working summer jobs), when I could hear my dad's alarm clock going off while I was watching TV.

But, as we all know, being a mom brings with it the automatic need to VERY quickly adapt to being a morning person. Little people are just early birds, by nature. It's a bit freakish to me, especially since they're the fruit of my loins, but the youngin's are always up at the crack of dawn, nonetheless, clamoring for food and drink like a soldier out on a three-day-pass.

So, I knew this morning I'd be in for a rude awakening (no pun intended), when I asked my husband to get me up at 6:30 a.m. I wanted to be sure to be up and at least physically vertical when my son left our house for his very first day of high school.

Not only was I surprised to see my son awake and mobile (he's grown to be a vampire, just like his Mama), but he was also relatively chipper this morning. An untrained eye would have to look really closely to see it (especially when his only full sentence to me this morning was, "Where are my clothes?"), but I know him like a book, and I could sense his excitement.

I passed him his (ironed) school clothes, and waited for him to be finished so I could take a few pictures before he headed out the door to wait for his bus. All the while, I was trying desperately to insert an IV into my arm, so I could pump my body full of coffee. I knew I was going to need it today, that's for sure!

I held it together pretty well.... until the moment when my little one and I were standing in front of one of her bedroom windows, looking out onto the street and waiting to see my son and my husband pass by as they walked to the bus stop. I saw him walk by, and fought back the tears. It was so surreal... to be stroking the head of my 3-year-old, and seeing my oldest go off to high school. It feels like just yesterday when I was stroking HIS 3-year-old head, looking out the window to watch for Daddy, coming home from work. That felt like last week sometime. And now, he's accomplished his first day of high school! Unbelievable.

He said he enjoyed it, even though it was a bit overwhelming. The campus is both gorgeous and HUGE (82 acres total), so it's naturally going to take him several days to really get to know where all of his classrooms are, as well as the lunchroom, the library, the restrooms, the computer room, etc. I'll give him a few weeks, and he'll be an old pro.

Tomorrow will be his first full day, when his "real" classes start. Once tomorrow's over, I'll be a little less on edge, just knowing he made it through, found all of his classes, and is getting more comfortable with the school and his surroundings.

And then maybe, I'll be able to sleep until 7:00 or so. Still not late enough to my liking, but hey... I gotta fetch those Cheerios for the clamoring kiddos! :)