Misadventures of the Mack Family: Jack Goes to Kindergarden!

I'm very happy to report that Jack has not only started Kindergarden, but he LIKES IT! Yes I know, it was only the first day, but he loved it.

He carefully picked out a fancy new outfit to wear, complete with his new red TOMS shoes.

I digress for a second to talk about Jack's hangup with shoes.

Jack hates most shoes. He likes two kinds of shoes, and those are Crocs, and flip flops. He is very picky about his shoes. He does not like sneakers at all. As a matter of fact, he has never owned a pair of new sneakers. He hates sneakers so much that he only wears them when he runs with his Dad and Justice, and those are a pair of hand me downs from Justice. He wears Converse regularly, but only under duress. I had to break the news to Jack that he couldn't wear Croc's or flip flops to school and he was going to have to buy some "real shoes". So we went school shoe shopping. Oh my goodness, what a tragedy that was. It was the worst shopping experience of my life. He hated every shoe that we saw. He tried on 15 pairs of shoes, and didn't like a single pair.

"They are CHOKING MY FEET!!!" he explained in a seriously dramatic fashion.

It was ridiculous.

And finally when I threw in the towel and told him he was getting another pair of Converse whether he liked it or not, a shoe display caught his eye. We hadn't seen it before because it was in the middle of the store, not over by the little boy's shoes. It was like a beacon of light was aimed right at Jack's head from the display, and he was quick to point and say…

"I want THOSE!"

And they were TOMS. It should have occurred to me to think out of the box with Jack and his shoes from the start. He really beats to his own drum.

He picked a tricky red pair, and also a natural colored pair, and he was excited that they do not "choke his feet". He was REALLY happy. So happy in fact, that he agreed to buy a pair of sneakers, too.

The days leading up to Jack going to Kindergarden were pretty bittersweet for me. On one hand I was glad he was finally ready and willing to go off to school. On the other hand, I knew I would miss him terribly. Jack is no trouble to have around. He's not loud, he doesn't want to be entertained, he doesn't make a mess, and he is very quiet. He is the perfect companion. And he is the first kid I've had with me at home instead of at daycare. For the past four years, he has been my constant 24/7 buddy. I knew I would be sad. And I was.

I dropped his cute little self off at school, and the ride home was very lonely. I stopped at the grocery store, which is something I wouldn't have normally done because he really wouldn't have wanted to. He would have just wanted to go straight home… no stops. I moped around the store for a bit, then headed home with Bo. And Bo was sad. He wandered around looking for Jack.

"Jack-JACK! It's ME! Where are you????" (It was more like "Jack-JACK, smeeee! Whah-you?)

He said that over and over again. He thought they were playing hide and seek. He was very frustrated. I moped around the house the rest of the afternoon with a melancholy baby and then we went to pick up the boys.

I mentioned before that I was keeping the boys in the schools in our old city. That means that I have to provide transportation, and that means no bus. That means I have to sit in the horrible "school pick up" line. And a horrible line, it is.

The line is so long I had to take two pictures. This is part 2 of the line from H-E-double hockey sticks.

It took me 30 minutes to pick them up on that first day. I have to sit in the middle school line first, and then go back in the elementary school line. Trust me when I say it's horrible. Almost everyone that I know drives their kids to school, none of my friends let their kids ride the bus. I cannot fathom sitting in that line every single afternoon, day after day if the bus was an option. Allegedly it will get better as the newbie's figure out this whole line-business. I sure hope so. Cause the pick-up line sucks. But while I was in the pick-up-line, I got an awesome text from Jack's teacher.