Friday, July 20, 2012

First Lunch Box


Yesterday was an exciting day. 
We got an email from Jack’s new preschool with the usual, “We can’t wait to meet you!” and list of what to bring on the first day.
My favorite thing on the list was a lunch box.
Ooooohhh! I get to pack a lunch for Jack!
In my mind, I am picturing one of those sweet, colorful and well-balanced bento-style lunches that will tell all of Jack’s teachers that his mom is creative, healthy and obviously is a great parent because she sends broccoli with her son to school, and he eats it!
No, Jack will not eat broccoli if I send it to school with him.
He probably won’t even eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
When he is excited Jack isn’t interested in pausing to eat. 
And boy, Jack is excited!
I read the letter to him and he thought it meant that we were going to school right then. For as many times as I told him there wasn’t anyone at the school yet, he told me that I was incorrect and that we should go check.
To help him get over having to wait (three more weeks!) we went to pick out a lunch box.
I really wanted him to have a trendy, artsy, inscribed box to carry his meals in. Preferably something with stripes in navy blue, orange and maybe some green or grey. Those are the colors cool moms send their boys to school with. 
In my deep, deep heart, I knew that we would come home with Spiderman. We don’t even watch Spiderman, yet he seems to win all the time in our house.
I even considered telling Jack we had to buy his lunch box from the computer and only showing him styles I liked.
Who am I kidding. I didn’t consider that - I did it!
I found a website with a variety of designs I approved of and used my “this is so awesome!” voice to describe each one as Jack and I looked at the pictures.
We settled on an option that Jack was really excited about, and I was willing to go for. It was aliens. But at least the aliens were navy blue, orange and green, with a little bit of grey thrown in.

AND, it came with a cool bento tupperware for all of my creative and healthy bites that would return home to me at the end of every school day.
In addition to a lunch box, it was also high on my list to get Jack some shoes, as he has spent most of the summer barefoot since we lost one of his Tom’s on a road trip to Colorado.
While at the mall hunting for (and finding!) the cutest shoes ever, we also walked past Pottery Barn Kids. Low and behold, right in their display window, were lunch boxes. We took a peek in and Jack fell in love.
His affection came to rest on a square (no thank you to the sack style, says Jack) canvas cooler. No aliens, not a stripe to be seen, not even a hint of navy blue... Just snakes.
After watching Jack clutch it and describe what he would eat from the magical snake box (broccoli was not on the list) I decided that it would be a good fit. While it was lacking in navy blue, it was heavy on the grey... And non-existent in the logo/spiderman department, which was a major plus.
We purchased it, and almost accidentally purchased an extremely overpriced water bottle to match. 
Luckily Andy was paying attention and saved us from that over-spend!
Shoes? Check.
Lunchbox? Check.
Adorable new tees and shorts? Yes indeed!
It is official. My first baby is ready for school!