Little Man is Growing Up

T1 had been so excited all weekend about going to school today. So excited that I unrealistically thought this morning would be easy; turns out I should have listened to the nagging thought in the back of my head that said, "Calm before the storm, McCarty. Calm before the storm."

Last night was deceptively easy. Dinner. Bath. Bedtime snack. Brush teeth. Bed and asleep-All by 7:30. No problem............................................................."Mommy, can I have some milk?" at 3:00 AM. Problem!

"Can you turn on the Goofy cartoon" at 4:00 AM. Serious Problem!

"I'm a little hungry. Can I get some cereal?" at 5:00 AM. Major, Serious Problem!

My alarm went off at 6. After my own morning routine (wash face, make coffee, etc.) I went to wake him up. Sound asleep. Not good! The boy is GROUCHY when he first wakes up. (Actually grouchy is nowhere near the right word. Mean, Cranky, Ill, and Pissy are much closer.) 

It took half an hour to get him out of bed and another half an hour to get him dressed. he kept saying he didn't want to got to school the entire time. I kept reminding him that he was going to have fun, fun, fun at school! Yeah, he was SO not buying it!

Let's just say that even though I had my phone and my camera handy I took ZERO pictures today because he was not having anything school related today. He cried all the way to school. He cried at school. He cried when I kissed him and told him I'd be back later to pick him up. He cried when the principal pulled him out of class and into the hallway. He cried when she walked him outside. It took a while more for him to decide to actually go to class.

Needless to say I was a wreck all day. I had worked myself into a stress headache by the time I pulled into the driveway and put myself into bed for a short nap. (Between that and the severe lack of sleep I really needed it.) MJ, T2, and I ate Chinese food and ducked into Hudson's, where I found a cute dress that I will be wearing to my cuz's wedding. At 2 o'clock I started all but vibrating and mentioning the time every 5 minutes until we left the store at 2:30. School lets out at 3 o'clock and I planned to be there, smiling and waiting, outside his classroom. Now, most of you faithful few will not think this is a strange request, but you must understand that MJ has been more than a smig late for pretty much everything she's ever done. Yes, that does include things for me too.

I was always the last to be dropped of for anything and the last to be picked up. Once, in elementary school, she was an hour late picking me up because she had been shopping in Mobile and lost track of time. Wow. Nice, huh? It was a total relief to ride with my friends to school because I always knew I'd be on time. It's funny; MJ believes it is something genetic I share with my Pop that makes me anal about being on time-or early even.  Nope, it's my entire life watching the clock in the car and feeling the sweat trickle down my back and my stomache twist into prezels each extra minute is takes to arrive. Oh God, it was agony.


When I picked him from school this afternoon, he was all smiles.