A few things about the first day of school

• My child is exuberant--to the point of absurdity--when he sees me at the end of a work day. I expected the same joyful shrieks and hugs when he saw me at the end of his school day. My expectations were modified when he saw me, marched in line with his class, and greeted me with, "Hi mom."

• But. When released by his teacher, he walked over, grabbed my hand, kissed it sweetly and said, "I just love you so much." I looked around quickly to see if his teacher had taught all of the little ones to do this. She had not. My sweet boy was the only one. I am proud that he listened to his teacher and sat with his class while he waited on further instruction, but I was relieved to get a more typical R.J. greeting later in the day.

• At lunch, he mimicked my every action...stopping only to rest his head in his hands and to tell me again, "I love you so much." (Secretly I'm just glad he's in my camp again. We've had a rough few weeks of timeouts, backtalk, and general discontent. Apparently school has taught him that his mommy really isn't mean, and he shouldn't try to cancel me or send me to my hotel. I park at a hotel; he believes I work there.)

• R.J. does not like his hair to be styled: "I like it when it looks like a pumpkin. Psssshhhhh!" he tells me, showing me a rounded, puffy bedhead. I like it when it looks like a pumpkin too. I guess we'll keep the toddler shag for a while longer.

• They must have learned about numbers in class, because in the middle of the night, R.J. sat up and shouted, "It's a number!" He then promptly went back to sleep. I did not.

• School, in R.J.'s world, means "circle time, playdough time, color time, and park time."

• After worrying about school, "canceling" school on his calendar (wonder where he gets that?), and planning for school for weeks, school turned out to be okay. R.J. said he'd go back again. But, he did want to read his Llama, Llama school book. Twice. Just to make sure he's not the only one who missed his mama.