Whoa! Neither Patrick nor I were prepared for the shock of the first day of school - and the shock was our own, NOT Ayden’s! As we prepared Ayden’s outfit the night before the first day of school and tried to mentally prepare him by talking about what the coming day would bring, we found ourselves in utter disbelief that our BABY is old enough to be going to school?!?! At one point in the evening Patrick mimed to me a rocking little baby in his arms and made an exaggerated sad face - no, we were NOT ready for this. However, Ayden certainly was! It’s a good thing the kid doesn’t know what Disneyland really is, because for the time being he thinks his new school is the best Disneyland in the world! I had been to the school for various informational and parent-orientation type events, but Ayden had never stepped foot in the building. We did have several play-dates over the summer with the kids who were lined up to be in his class this year (a GREAT idea!) so that at least most of the faces were familiar, if not the surroundings. In addition, Teacher Linda made home visits to each of the students in her classes to get to know them in their home environments, so that the kids would already know HER upon their arrival at school, and so that we could give her the 1-yard of cotton fabric that Ayden chose for his school bag. Yes, Teacher Linda requested that each student provide her with 1-yard of fabric of their choosing that she would sew into a school bag with each child on the first day of school. How awesome is THAT?!?! Choosing the fabric was an event in itself - you’d have thought I’d taken the boys to a candy store - they were both SO excited to search through the 
neatly stacked bolts of fabric! It was like a treasure hunt for them - Ooh, stars! Look, Santa! Mama, pumpkins and ghosts! Whoa, robots! Pretty, flowers! Scary, spiders! Cool, tractors! Mommy! DINOSAURS!!!!! And so it was that the Dinosaur fabric has become Ayden’s school bag for the year. Oh, and naturally, since his favorite color IS blue (and against my apparently not-so-important observation that the blue ribbon did NOT match the dinosaur fabric and that perhaps the brown ribbon would be more pleasing to the eye) he chose the bright blue ribbon to be the handles.
Suffice it to say that Ayden had a VERY good first experience at school yesterday. He cannot wait until tomorrow when he gets to go again 
His eyes were twinkling and he was positively alight as he moved from one part of the classroom to the next, discovering each new activity and treasure trove of possibilities. I could not be more pleased with his reaction to the school and it definitely makes the parental shock and associated and necessary adjustment to having a school-aged child a bit easier to swallow. My baby is in school! When did THIS happen?
Enjoy all the pictures from Ayden’s first day in the new gallery!