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Today was Z's first day of junior high. He's still at the same school, where he very well may be until graduating high school, but junior high means a new classroom and teacher, mostly new classmates, and a new more rigid set of expectations. It seems like his new teacher takes preparing her students for high school seriously and expects more out of them than the younger grade teacher did. Last year he was in a class that was roughly for grades three to five, this year kids range from grades six to eight. I'm hoping this will be a good change for him.

While Z was at school Az and I had our first mother-daughter date in a few months. We didn't do much of anything but it was nice getting to focus all of my attention on her. I appreciate that even though Z does take a lot of my attention, I still manage to find opportunities to give Az my full attention. I find excuses to spend individual time with Z as well, which I think is important after almost a decade of it being just me and him. He never complains or acts jealous of Az, but he deserves to still get me to himself every once in a while too. Heck, I need to get in as many one-on-one dates as I can while he even still wants to do anything with his mom. He is in junior high school now you know.

Here's Z heading out the door on his first day of sixth grade, wearing a color changing shirt that very well could have been worn by someone in my own sixth grade class in 1991, standing on the very steps I headed down every morning of junior high. I think our hairdos were even similar.