On your marks, get set...

 This is the smiling face of someone about to get on a bus for kindergarten.

Do you like his new lunchbox?

It is a brave smile. He was nervous. He said a few times, "I'm tired..." which is usually Milesspeak for "I'm feeling overwhelmed and inadequate to this task." When we reminded him that he was going to be able to see the class pet when he got there, he brightened, and when we recited Winnie-the-Pooh together he was positively cheerful.

And as solemn as he mostly was, each time we held up the camera he smiled, big, willingly.

Do you like his new Miles Davis shirt?

 Adele was admiring, affectionate, and her usual enthusiastic self. She crawled all over the bus stop, got dirt all over her face, and gleefully pointed out ever cicada shell she found.

I laughed at the enormousness of Miles' ID tag, until it was time to put him on a bus by himself.  Grateful for it, now.

Like his new backpack?

Now you can see his surlier face.

(Really missing my good camera about now)

 There was just one other family at the bus stop, a man and his son. After a few minutes, I said hello and asked what grade his son was going into. He told me his son was a 4th grader, and asked about mine. We chatted about their ages and it was clear immediately that he was an English language learner. I said hello to the 4th grader, and he smiled confidently, and silently, as I introduced him to Miles. That's when the dad told me: he and his family had just moved to the US three weeks ago. His son's English, he confided to me, is "very poor."

Guys, how am I supposed to feel all worried about my poor baby on the bus all alone, when he is in his own town and speaks his own, native language? The courage of that child, to move to a new country and hop on a bus full of people whom he can barely understand, to go to a school taught in a language he is only beginning to learn, just took my breath away.

Miles smiled at him when we told him his new bus stop mate was from China, and when we asked him how he might best say hello, said "Ni hao!" and got a smile in return.

Did I mention that he went to a day care friend's birthday party on Saturday where all the adults spoke Bengali? Did I mention how much I love Blacksburg?

Well, all of a sudden the bus was there and it was time. I was prepared to be a bit sad about this milestone, but because he's been in daycare and preschool for so long, I kinda thought there wouldn't be too much of a difference in kissing my kindergartener goodbye.

This is different, guys. Putting him on a bus for a full day of school is waaay different. And, I wasn't prepared for the way, in a flash, his whole babyhood seemed to rattle by like a train leaving a station. 

 Adele gave her hero a hug and kiss, and he was straight, tall and brisk as he boarded the bus. When the bus doors closed, Adele said, "Miles was brave!"

Brave is the theme of the day. Keeping Miles and his 4th grade companion in mind as I try hard to be brave, too.

Go.