Kindergarten

first day of school

Months of worry (privately by us – not Bella). Months of wondering if she would get the teachers we were hoping for (again just by us – not Bella) (And we did!). Months of anticipation (by us all). And FINALLY Kindergarten has begun…and so far…SO GOOD!

Our school shopping experience was not too pleasant. Turns out, Bella is not a big shopper. (I totally get it. Neither am I.) But she does like new clothes (she just doesn’t want to pick them out…). We went one day, and came back with almost nothing… SO, I decided to make a game of it, and get her some new clothes for the first week of school. I went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff  I thought she might like, and set up a “shop” in her room one night and pretended to be the sales person. She LOVED this (she loves pretend games right now). She picked out everything she liked, even tried everything on – and was armed with a new wardrobe to start off the school year. (I always feel more confident when I have a new outfit, and I was hoping she would feel the same way.) I told her she could keep the things that fit/that she liked, on one condition – she was not allowed to wear any of it until school starts. She picked out the outfit that she would wear to school on the first day right then. (Hot pink skinny “jeans” with a navy shirt with a cat with sequin glasses.)

Monday was the big day. Bella was definitely nervous as we walked to school on the first day – but she was also excited to be going to the BIG kid school that Owen goes to. We all walked together. She got in line for her class on the black top – and to be honest, it was a bit of a pandemonium – nervous kids everywhere with double the parents. Luckily there wasn’t much time to stand there (we were “just” on time) – and the line started to move and we gave her a quick kiss and said follow your teacher – have a great day! We didn’t want to walk her all the way to the class (the teacher had asked us not to, plus, we wanted her to see that we were confident in the teachers to take care of her and that she could do it by herself).  Unfortunately, lots of parents were right beside their kiddos – which makes it hard for the shorty kids to see their lines, and so it was a bit crazy. To her credit, Bella charged ahead with quite a bit of confidence, though (Jeremy and I snuck to the back to watch from where she couldn’t see us). She got lost from her line for just a second, but she saw her student teacher and quickly grabbed her hand and made her way to the classroom. Then we made our way home, and I proceeded to wonder what the heck I am going to do without my big girl on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to have some private time to spend with Audrey, but it just feels weird to not have Bella with us. (Audrey has been a little “off” all week too – I think she REALLY misses having Bella to play with…I realize I need to work on making some little friends for Audrey to play with, now…)

So after nail-biting my way through the day, wondering how Bella was doing – I finally go to pick her up from school. I get there – (again, a bit of pandemonium) – she smiles at me – “Bella, how was your day?”, her response…”IT WAS GREAT!! I got four smile faces! I got a poem! Chester left us a sugar cookie on our desks after recess!”

Relief! JOY! I am so excited to watch her start this journey. She has still been apprehensive in the mornings as we go to school – but each day, I see her confidence building – and she has come home with a smile and good feelings everyday so far. Man, the teachers really have a hard job on their hands (I think there are 24 kids in the class!) – but they are doing such an amazing job. I can’t believe we have a Kindergartener. I saw someone else write this on Facebook the other day in a comment, but I think it is SO true: The days go by slow, but the years go by SO fast.