Gabe's First Day of School

We were only a little bit late this morning, but it was enough to set my 7 year old's nerves on edge.  The letter from his teacher had said that she would pick up his class at the front door of the school at 8:30 when the bell rang.  We arrived at the school at 8:31, had to quickly and illegally cross the street (j-walking, I'm surprised that I didn't get yelled at) and usher the boys into the school, then I remembered the traditional first-day-of-school picture in front of his new school.  Gabe and I hastily retreated out the front door, leaving Simon and Ian inside to snap a quick photo.

What now?  We didn't know which room was Gabe's room, it's a new school and a new neighborhood, and back to school night isn't until this Wednesday.  So, we quickly looked at the room directory, Mrs. M was in room 10.  Thank heaven I at least knew his teacher's name!  (Secretly I gave myself some mom points for that one, I got to take them where I can these days)  But...where was room 10?  We figured it out thanks to the help of a kind mom who could see we looked lost.

We got to the classroom last all the kids to arrive, everyone was in there seat and the parents were quickly being shooshed out the door. Gabe wouldn't go in at first, and he wouldn't let go of my hand.  He was worried about taking his backpack inside because the hooks were in the hall and he didn't know where to put his lunch.  So, I helped Gabe find his desk with his name tag and put his backpack on the back of his chair and that's when we realized that Mrs. M was expecting "Gabrielle" Jacobs rather than Gabe.  Gabe and I laughed about it for a minute and then I told him to tell his teacher when he could, she had printed a whole sheet of labels with "Gabrielle" printed on it in rainbow letters.

They were probably labeling everything from the lengthy list of school supplies we were asked to bring from home.  I snapped a few quick photos and we left the room, that's when I heard Gabe say to Mrs. M who had come to say Hi,  "Just so you know, you spelled my name wrong.  This is how a girl spells it."  To which she replied, "I didn't know how to spell it and couldn't find you".  Huh?  I'm sure the office had my number, and clearly she had my address. I even signed him up in my own writing for school, so how did it ever turn into Gabrielle?  It didn't matter for long though, because as I was leaving the school, I turned and snapped this photo.  Even though it is a new school, even though he doesn't know anybody, and even though his teacher thought he was going to be a girl, my Gabe is back in his element and he is going to have a great year!