It's my first day of kindergarten...and I'll cry if I want to!

Cole's first day of Kindergarten was yesterday. Clay happened to have the day off. Before school started, Clay tried out some child psychology using this monkey puppet. Wearing the puppet on his hand, Clay, or the monkey rather, explained to Cole that he was really going to miss him when he's at school so he made him this banana picture hoping that Cole would keep it in his back pack during school and think of him when he sees it. Cole totally plays along with this kind of thing and was very pleased to keep the picture in his backpack.

Here's Cole on the way to his classroom. Spiderman was this years pick for back pack and lunch box.

A quick picture with his buddy.

On the kindergarten playground.

A quick picture with Mom.

This is it. Here we go inside the classroom.

Cole at his desk.

I love the school that Cole is attending. His teacher is wonderful. When it was time for the parents to leave, I said goodbye to Cole and he seemed like he was doing great. He said bye back and signed to me, "I love you".
A couple hours later it was time to pick Cole up. As soon as he saw me the tears welled up in his eyes. His teacher told me that he cried some that day, but that's very normal. Clay and I asked him a million questions about what he did at school and what made him sad, and what was fun, etc. He said that the reason he was crying during class was because he missed us. He was crying when I picked him up because he had colored an apple in class and thought he would get to take it home.
He showed me a picture he drew in class, in my favorite color, yellow, of me and him holding hands inside a big heart.
Thankfully Clay was there. I did a lot of crying behind closed doors that afternoon.
Somewhat suprisingly, he happily got ready and went to school today, that is until we actually got to the saying goodbye part at the threshold of his classroom door. He said to me, "No, I can't do this, I can't do this." His tears were ready and waiting. Luckily, another mom came and distracted him by asking if she could help him to his seat. He responded, "I know where it is", and walked to his desk. The mom, wisely, shooed me away.
When I picked him up today, the teacher told me he cried today too. I know he'll get used to all of this, just like he did with primary and going to friends' houses by himself. Hopefully day 3 will be better.
The good thing is that none of his school sadness lingers. He fully intends to go to school tomorrow, and he acts silly and happy at home, like usual. Whenever someone asks him how school was, he responds, "Great!". So...sounds good to me!