KNOX’S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

I couldn’t sleep last night as all the thoughts and emotions about Knox’s first day of school were running through my head. Did I label everything correctly, will he eat his lunch, surely he won’t really go to sleep on a nap mat?!, Will he make new friends? Is he going to miss me?

To be fair, it isn’t really ‘school’, it is just a day program for 2 year olds.  He will go from 9:15am – 2:30pm two days a week (every Monday and Friday). But still, he will be out of our house and out of my supervision and that’s a hard thing to let go of when it’s your first-born.  To put it in a sentence, he has just grown up WAY too fast!

Knox is a very independent little boy.  He isn’t even two yet (he will be October 5th), but he already thinks he is one of the big boys.  He loves playing with the older neighborhood kids.  When we are at the pool, he has to go down the slide and jump off the diving board like he sees everyone else doing.  When we drop him off in the church nursery every Sunday, he calls it ‘play’ and happily tells mom and dad ‘bye’ as we drop him off.

I know this way is so much better than watching your child scream and cry as your heart simultaneously breaks when you have to leave them.  But, it is also hard to watch them grow up so fast.  Part of me still feels like he should be the 5 lb baby we brought home from the NICU (wasn’t that just yesterday?!).

Our house sure is quiet as I sit here and type this blog post.  On a typical morning (before Knox started school), our sweet nanny would come over at 9:00am to play with Knox for a few hours while I work on the blog.  I would hear them playing in the other room or see them in the yard with the neighborhood kids.  If I was missing him, I could walk in the other room and give him a big hug or peek in to make sure he was eating a healthy lunch.  Thinking about it now, I guess it was just the baby step I needed to prepare for dropping him off today.  (She will still be with us in the mornings on the other three weekdays.)

We took Knox to the school playground last week so he would be familiar with the place before he started school today.  We told him it was his ‘school’ and he would be coming back on Monday.  This morning when we said it was time for school, all he kept talking about was ‘playground’!  He literally was running through the doors today thinking he would be heading straight for the playground.  Luckily, he was easily distracted with a toy horse when he found out he couldn’t go outside… just yet.

I will be staring at this sweet picture of him all day while telling myself how great school will be for him and how much fun he is having!

Perhaps the strongest and most overwhelming feeling I experienced this morning is pride.  I am so proud of our little boy.  Of course, I am his mom and a little biased, but I just look at him and see the sweetest, smartest and cutest little (almost) two-year old that ever walked through that class room door.

I can’t wait to hear what he has to say when I pick him up today!  I know they have art and music and both those have become two of his favorite things lately.  I am sure he will be bursting with so many stories to tell us! Be sure to check in on snapchat (HOUSE of HARPER) for a first hand account!

Photographed by Kate Robinson

Outfit details (Me): shirt: c/o Splendid | jeans: c/o DL1961 | shoes: Kate Spade (this season version) | blazer: J.Crew | sunglasses: Celine

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Outfit details (knox): shirt: Gap Kids | Jeans: Gap Kids | shoes: Gap kids (similar) | backpack + nap mat: The Monogram Shop

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