First grade - first day - the recap

The verdict is in, and.... he likes it. Describing his first day as "pretty fun" and "not so scary", AJ – who's already informed his new teacher he wants to be called Alex because it's bigger – decided first grade is going to be okay. Even if he's the only boy at his table. (They're seated alphabetically and he's apparently the only boy with a last name in the middle of the alphabet.)

His friend Jordan is in his class, and he got to see "both Evans" on the playground. Hanna – his girlfriend since age two who's NOT his girlfriend anymore – also is in his class.

"Did you talk to Hanna at all?" I asked.

"I saw her in the hall and said, 'see you in class!'."

Such a conversationalist. Below are a few more photos from the big day.

Surveying the scene, Mr. Cool waits for the bus. (Note - the bus comes from the opposite direction of AJ's stare. I think he's just watching the neighbor boy watch for the bus.)

His biggest fear went unrealized. He'd spent the last few days, ever since seeing the class list, worrying about one particular girl in his class, "The Tattle Tale". She wasn't in his kindergarten class, but – according to the story I've now heard several times – she once tried to tattle on him in the lunchroom for taking someone else's fork, "It's not mine! I didn't take it!" AJ says he protested.

"I'm telling!" was the girl's response.

"AJ, did she tell on you?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"Did you get in trouble?"

"No."

"Then maybe you shouldn't worry about her. Maybe she's learned over the summer to not be a tattle tale."

"She's going to get me in trouble," AJ whined.

"Do I yell at you every time Sydney tattles on you?" I asked.

"No."

"That's because I know Sydney can be a tattle tale. Adults usually are able to figure that out. And don't you think Mrs. Baird is at least as smart as your Mom?"

Finally he'd changed the subject. So much stress in elementary school. But as it turned out, The Tattle Tale wasn't one of them. When asked if he'd had any problems with her, he said, "She ignored me."

Alas, his other big fear almost did come true. "I almost got a color change, but I didn't."

"What did you do?" I asked. (The Color Change Chart is the means of tracking kids when they misbehave.)

"I don't remember."

"You almost got in trouble, but you don't remember what you did?"

"But I didn't get a color change."

"Was it in the morning, at lunch or in the afternoon?"

I don't know. Mrs. Baird just said to keep quiet or I'd get a color change."

"So you were talking when you were supposed to be listening. Was it just you who got the warning, or a bunch of kids?"

"Maybe it was just me." 

I'm fairly confident he'll be a better listener today.

One last photo I had to take – as a way to gauge how much each will have grown by the end of the school year:

It's not that AJ was frowning. He was just busy concentrating on getting Gus to sit still. I love the shot because the stubborn set of their jaws is identical.