Lunch!

Last year when all my mommy friends sent their child off to an elementary school that offered full-day kindergarten, having lunch with their son or daughter in the cafeteria was a big thing.  I longed for the day that I'd be able to do the same with Ian. Now that Ian is in school full-time, I got my chance last week.

I decided I'd surprise Ian and not let him know that I was planning on coming.  I had a dentist appointment at 10:30am and wanted to leave the possibility open that if I got stuck at the dentist longer than I anticipated I wouldn't be disappointing Ian.  Plus, I love surprising the kids.  It's just so much fun!

Ian has lunch from 12:10 to 12:40pm each day.  Parents are encouraged to come for lunch and you don't have to arrange it in advance.  I arrived at the school at 12:00pm and signed in at the front office.  Upon walking down the hallway to Ian's classroom, I ran into another mom whose child was in Ian's class last year, but got assigned a different teacher this year. Carol had also been eager to have lunch with Anna-Kate and decided to do a surprise too.  We joked that you won't be able to miss us sitting with all the little kids. 

I found Ian standing in line outside the cafeteria waiting until it was their turn to go in.  The look on his face was priceless and instantly all the kids near him asked if I was him mom. I felt like a rockstar! 

Ian was purchasing his lunch that day and I joined him in the line to pick out something for me to eat too.  Ian chose the turkey hot dog and I picked the yogurt biteable (yogurt, cheese stick, orange slices, and sun chips - which after looking at the ingredients discovered they not gluten-free).  Ian found it humorous that I picked the chocolate milk to drink.  Hey, it was non-fat chocolate milk; there was no way I was going to pass that up!

I followed Ian to his table and he introduced me to more of his friends.  I then realized that eating in the school cafeteria is not for the faint of heart.  Oh my!  It is seriously noisy.  So loud that I kept feeling like a fight was going to break out and I'd have to duck under the table for cover.  The lunch room lady turns the light off and on when it gets too loud.  So you can imagine that it was flickering like a disco ball.  Then there is this clapping that happens when the lunch lady wants to get the kids' attention.  She'll clap and they have to clap back -- repeatedly, until everyone is listening.  Yowzer!  That's just a whole lot of noise going on!

I joked with Ian that I was going to come meet him for lunch every day.  He had this look of fear on his face and said, "Um, no."  Then about 5 minutes later he said I could come once a month.  Yeah, I think the headache I got from all the noise will be gone by then.  I can handle once a month.

Despite the noise, I had a great time.  I fulfilled this cafeteria dream on a few levels; getting to have lunch with my son and getting to have lunch in a true school cafeteria.  Growing up, I went to small schools that didn't offer this.  It was neat getting to experience this.

I wonder when it will no longer be cool to have lunch with Ian?