First day of school

This morning, as Jack is still hanging out in his jammies, he's watching Disney Junior. A segment comes on between shows and it's a compilation of Disney mommys and their babies - Bambi, Dumbo, etc. as Jennifer Garner reads this poem, A Mother's Song.

I look at Jack, yutzing around and can't believe we're here: It's his first day of preschool. I can still remember the moment of his birth exactly on that November eve and now we're suiting him up in his monkey backpack and convincing him it's time to retire the summer sandals for his sensible sneakers.

And so Jack - and my heart - headed out to preschool today.

Today's class was only an hour long, and Jack brought along his entourage of Maria, Mommy, Daddy and baby sister Jossie.  It was totally free-form: The kids played with toys, had a snack when they wanted to and said hello to the class bunny, Hopsy Cabbage. Jack mostly played on his own but toward the end, starting to warm up to the others.  All in all, it was a very good morning, and Jack has already declared he's looking forward to going back.

We celebrated the first day of school with lunch at one of of Jeremy's and my favorite places, L'Apetito, which you can find in the base of the John Hancock Building. It's an Italian bakery and they have wonderful sandwiches, salads, pizzas and desserts. Even though it's in a prominent location - right on Michigan Avenue - I feel like it's still under-the-radar as a good lunch spot. As we're there, I picked Jack up and swung him around. He giggled and threw his head back. I caught his head in the palm of my hand, pull him close and rested my head in his hair. It's like someone hit the rewind button at that moment, and I can remember holding Jack that way as an infant, nuzzling his head close.

It really does go all too fast.