School Daze

I sent my big boy off to second grade this morning, so I'm a little misty-eyed. Will was so excited to be back at school and with his buddies. We got his supplies ready last night and portioned out which he's bringing in which day - it's going to take a full week to bring everything in. Public school kids - how do these kids not graduate stooped over? I have FOUR BAGS of supplies, including three rolls of paper towel, two boxes of tissues, and a box of baby wipes - am I a parent or the local Costco?

X-Men folders? Check. Wacky Packages pencils? Got 'em. Tony Hawk folder - check - and do you actually know who Tony Hawk is? "Yeah, Mom, he's the skateboarder guy." Wow, I'm impressed. My son is turning into a pop culture freak like his mother.

We assembled school supplies, watched Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars I DVDs, and then he made some calls to his friends - who he'd be seeing not 24 hours from then - and all I could think of was, "Wow. He's a kid. He's not a little boy anymore." He's totally become this real kid, as opposed to the little boy I sent off to first grade last year. I may still have written his name in indelible ink on all his posessions this year, but he's growing up.

He even chooses his own shoes now. We went to Payless to pick up some new sneakers for him and he announced that he no longer wanted "any shoes or socks with cartoons on them." It was like a dagger in my heart, as I was eyeing up the cool Batman sneaks in his size. He chose a black pair of Shaq sneakers ("Do you know who he is?" "I think he plays basketball - but they're COOL SHOES!") and a pair of white and black hi-top Shaq sneakers. He loved them and was so proud that he chose them. For a sec, he looked at me and wavered, but I couldn't be selfish. I told him, "You have to wear them. You're... a big kid now. What shoes do you want?" "I don't want the Batman ones, Mom."

So we now have two pairs of Shaq sneakers at home - some guy who plays basketball. He couldn't wait to lace up the black ones this morning. He spiked up his hair (he chose the haircut, too) and was ready to go.

Oh, well... I still have a modicum of say in Alex's stuff for the time being. :-)