Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose

A fair number of our loved ones told me they were teary eyed yesterday when they saw pictures of Rush on his first day of kindergarten.  You know who wasn’t crying?  This guy-

You know who else wasn’t crying?  Me.  If you had lived with him for the past few weeks, you wouldn’t have cried either.  Talk about being ready-he’s moving on.  I can’t be too sad about the little-boy-at-home-with-me stage of his life being over, because it is over, school starting or not.  If my darling, sweet Rush had not been starting school this year, I would have had to find work for him as a farm hand or possibly a position on a whaling ship. 

He got up, got dressed, brushed his teeth, combed his hair and came downstairs ready to go, a little nervous but generally excited.  He came home a new bus riding man, already content to tell us that he had a great day while withholding most details.  We’re trying to pry some info out of him. 

Tate is the one having a rough time.  Last night at dinner when we were saying the best parts of our days, Tate kept repeating, “I just have nothing to say.”  Finally he said, “I just missed Rush, okay!?”  Then this morning after we took Rush to school, I asked him about missing Rush yesterday and his response was, “I miss Rush right now.”  It was about 8:15 in the morning.  It’s probably not helping Tate that his school class is almost all girls.  He enjoys playing ladies man to some extent, but I think he could use another buddy or two.  He’s not too excited about the new school year, but I’m not above a Shipley’s bribe to help him through the first week.

It will be fun to see what kind of relationship develops between these two, now freed from the tyranny of the past few weeks.  Ah, the fresh start of a new school year.  I’m so ready, I don’t even mind football season sneaking up behind me.