The First Day of the Rest of His Life

It was a great success! Sebastian was fearless. Brett got teary-eyed but I didn't bat an eyelash. I'm proud of my son no matter what but his independent nature made it easy for him to walk through that long corridor to his classroom, put his supplies away, and rarely look back as we hugged him goodbye and walked out the door. I am 100% sure Ruby will be a different story.

We were getting ready for his first day of big kid school on Wednesday evening when what I have described as a series of unfortunate events started to play out.

I sat on the couch labeling all of Sebastian's school supplies with a black sharpie when Ruby got a hold of the second box of washable markers and ripped the cardboard top off to get them out. No big deal. I asked Sebastian to throw it away so that Sunday wouldn't eat it and he headed to the kitchen. Being the easily distracted boy that he is he bypassed the trash can and opened the fridge. I heard a funny noise and then he called out that he'd dropped an egg on the floor.

I capped my sharpie, set down my things, and briskly walked into the kitchen where I discovered not one but a dozen cracked eggs leaking all over the floor. The organic, cage-free, raised on a local Amish farm eggs that Brett had just purchased earlier that day. Yep. I said something dramatic and Brett quickly showed up to survey the damage as I gathered paper towels and cleaned up the mess.

I then realized Ruby hadn't been at my heels as I was cleaning which meant she was up to no good. I walked back to the living room to see what she was doing and saw her pulling up her shirt to draw on her belly. WITH THE SHARPIE. As I got closer I realized she'd already drawn all over the front of Sebastian's red backpack. WITH THE SHARPIE.

Brett took the backpack down to the basement to see if stain remover would work in hopes that Sebastian wouldn't be upset about his backpack being vandalized by his little sister. Somehow he saw it but told us he didn't mind that Ruby had scribbled on it. Heart swell.

He didn't complain once about his plain, red backpack with the markings all over it. The cubbies were lined with Transformer and Cars backpacks but he hardly noticed. He just unloaded his supplies, put his backpack on the hook, and sat down to color with his new friends.

I think he's going to be just fine.

In other news, I spent two and a half fantastic hours cleaning up my studio space while Ruby napped this afternoon. I think I'm going to miss him tomorrow, though.

xo,

Rachel

p.s. Margot, we almost made it to Kindergarten with the Spiderman backpack you sent us last year but there was an unfortunate accident involving Sunday and an upset tummy post-surgery. The backpack didn't make it.