Liam's 1st Day of Kindergarten!

Liam had a GREAT first day of school!

I couldn't be more proud of how brave he was, especially considering most of the summer any discussion about going to Kindergarten was met with complete refusal and often tears. 

Excuse my dramatic mom post, but I don't want to forget any details of his first day. And also, I'm 17 months pregnant. So leave me alone. :) 

Liam was excited the night before as we read, "The Night Before Kindergarten" and "The Kissing Hand" and prayed over his first day, but when we woke him up the next morning, he immediately wrapped his arms around me and said, "I'm going to miss you Mommy. I don't want to go." Cue tears, round one. 

After a shower and his favorite breakfast (bacon, eggs, and pancakes), he perked up (and I pulled myself together) and was back to being all smiles about going to school! We walked into his school hand in hand but as we got close to his hallway the smile disappeared, he stopped and said, "I'm just a little bit nervous." Cue tears, round two. I literally could NOT turn them off. Flood gate proportions, y'all. It was embarrassing but thankfully didn't cause him to cry too. 

We assured him it was going to be awesome and continued on to his room. There was only one other little girl in there at the time so he was able to be greeted by his sweet teacher and get settled without much distraction. Liesl made a beeline for the trampoline and I took approximately 200 pictures. His teacher was so sweet to even get a family picture of us! (Minus Liesl, who had to be physically removed from the trampoline later.) 

I held it together the whole time in the classroom and we stayed with him while he gave his teacher her gift, got situated at his desk, and began to color. Other families were filing in so we slowly left. But not without a few more hugs and kisses. And lingering by the door. He was ready for us to go when we did and gave us big smiles. As soon as we walked out I lost it again and made Will go peek on him once more while I put on my sunglasses and hid in the hallway. He was doing perfectly fine of course so we finally left. 

We met friends for a "boohoo breakfast" where I cried the entire drive as I re-hashed the morning to my mom. Thank goodness for my girlfriends and greasy breakfast tacos or my day may have never recovered. The husbands all ate and left for work so we hung around and chatted for awhile about our mornings. By the time we left, Liesl and I had plans to shop the day away in hopes that it would be pick-up time before we knew it. First we went home to upload pictures and take a potty break (priorities). Then we headed to HomeGoods, Target, Kid-to-Kid and met my friend Tracey and her son for a long lunch. Then it was Costco and finally time to get in the carpool line! Carpool lines are no joke! Luckily Liesl was passed out cold by this point, so I chatted on the phone and started reading "For The Love" that I picked up at Target specifically for the carpool line. 

30 minutes later my baby was back in my possession! He jumped into the car all smiles and proceeded to chat my ear off about his day the whole way home. I found out he made two new friends (but couldn't remember their names!), got to be line leader once during the day, went to the gym, got to go to recess three (!!!) times, and made a truck out of pattern blocks. Basically, a dream day for this kid! His sweet teacher even sent me some pictures during he day! 

He was so tired when he got home and had a couple meltdowns over little things, but I knew that was coming and brushed it off. He never did fall asleep though which was probably good because he's back to bed early tonight for day two tomorrow! He told me he would like a "little break" from school tomorrow because it's "so long" -- sorry, kid! They warned us the kids might not be so excited to go to school by day three of four so I'm preparing for that as well. 

Overall, Liam sounded like he had a wonderful day which I know had a lot to do with all the prayers he was surrounded with and with his awesome teacher and school. I can't lie, it was HARD letting him go and it will continue to be hard for awhile, but we are both going to grow so much from this and I have to let his sweet self shine! 

Also, let it be known that I was not the only Lofland parent who had a hard time this morning. Will kept it together much better than I did, but I know I saw glassy eyes more than once this morning! He loves his boy so much and is such a great Daddy. 

Now, millions of pictures. The posed pictures we actually took Sunday afternoon so as to avoid so much rushing Monday morning. 

And a bunch of versions of the same picture with different smiles...because I couldn't decide which was my favorite! 

We also went up to his school and took some pictures! Also, a good idea to do a day early if you can because the traffic and hustle and bustle going on in front of the school on the first day is BANANAS! 

And the actual first day...

Breakfast of champions! 

First day lunch! 

walking in...

Goodbye hugs!