1st Day Back At School...

Today is Joe's first day back at school, after his very first "Christmas Vacation" from school. He had 3 weeks off and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. We have had Christmas, a trip to Kingsburg and Sonoma, then a coastal drive back home with a stop in Monterey, and he just got done spending TWO nights at Nana and Papa's. His poor little emotional self cried on the way home because he knew the "good times" had come to an end. He said, "Mama, I want to stay at Nana and Papa's and NOT have school again." It's kind of funny when those life lessons hit and it kind of hurts my heart too. Reality has to kick in at such a young age!

I was fully expecting a ROUGH morning. The last few days of vacation, he had started to sleep in until about 8am. He has NEVER IN HIS LIFE slept that late, but of course he had to wait until THE END of vacation to do it (not that it would matter because Matthew has started getting up between 6-6:30). ANYWAY, I thought for sure I'd hear some complaints when the alarm in Joe's room went off at 6:30!

Matthew had woken me up at 6, so he and I were already downstairs. Joe came down about 6:32 and said, "My alarm went off when it was still THICK black outside." I loved the "thick." I am blessed this morning, though, because I told him it was a new day and he had to go back upstairs and get his clothes on so I could feed him the breakfast I was making... and HE DID IT. He's really been showing signs of growth in his behavior. He still has his typical Joe melt-downs because he's a huge ball of emotions in a little body that doesn't understand them... But he's showing signs of maturity and even slowing down a little bit...sometimes.

I'm thankful my boy is at school (even though I secretly wish vacation could just continue, because I don't care for the scheduling of school)... I am praying his teacher enjoys him today and gets to see those signs of growth I'm talking about. I fear for her though, because he'll be in a room full of hyper little people and I'm sure he'll join right in!