School starts

And, we're off to our first day of school........

Peace signs by order of Princess Summer

Headed into the school on her first day of Kindergarten

She's leading the way to her classroom.

The dreaded day (the first day of school) has come and gone. It went better than expected and with far less tears than expected. I guess that is a good thing, but for some reason I feel like the tears are just building up inside and will eventually be released. Probably next week when she and Lexie go all day . This week is just half days for Summer, and Lexie only went one day. So, I haven't fully experienced a full day of school with no kids yet. I must admit that I am not looking forward to it. I am happy that she likes it though. I haven't heard any complaints from her. That makes it a little easier on me.

On her first day, she gave me sad faces when I left. She asked how long it was going to be and seemed disappointed when I told her 3 hours. But, there was no arm clings or tears like I had anticipated. She did not by any means give me any sort of smile or act like she wanted to do any of the activities that were available. There was a baby doll area, a dress up station and a table full of legos and little boys. One little girl was playing with playdough. Summer chose the table with the markers and paper. When I left the room, she was just looking at the paper. After I left, she drew a pretty flower in a flower pot which she brought home in her Littlest Pet Shop backpack. I don't think it hit me hard when I left the room because I still had Lexie to entertain for the next 30 minutes. We headed out to her playground where she swang and explored the equipment. It is a great playground and has everything a kid could need or want in a playground, even a seesaw which is not common anymore. And, it's all just her size! As we waited for the teacher, I talked to another parent who I met years ago when I took Summer to Playgym. She has a Pre-K3 and K student. Crazy what a small world it is! Unlike me, she was jumping for joy -literally!! - when she dropped her kids off. Lexie said goodbye to me with a smile on her face. She was ready for school!

When I picked up Lexie, she was on the playground again playing on the slide in the castle. Her teacher said only good things about her, and I was happy when she informed me that she had not peed in her panties. She's not perfectly potty trained yet, but she does pretty good most of the time. We had time to waste before Summer got out for the day so Lexie had some strawberries and juice while we sat on a bench in the shade. When it was finally time to join the carpool line, Lexie was really wondering why were weren't getting Summer. I will be happy when they are on the same schedule that way the carpool line will just be me, and I can jam out on my Ipod. It could turn the worst part of the day into something I could possibly look forward to. I just hope I don't get too carried away and end up with all the parents around me staring at me like I'm crazy. LOL When Summer got into the car, she was happy and said only good things about school. She wanted to go to Ichiban for lunch, but I wasn't hungry so I told her we'd go the next day. She was a little disappointed, but agreed that a happy meal would be a good choice. We were deeply saddened to see that they were out of Smurfs. What a tragedy!!!

The rest of the day was spent watching cartoons and playing games. I couldn't talk her into a swim although the slip and slide did slightly tempt her, but we ended up not doing that either. She asked if she could do a chore and get some money. She told me she wanted to vacuum the bugs out of the loft we use as a library. I told her I'd give her a dollar if she did that and took the Netflix movies to the mailbox. She replied that she only wanted to do the vacuuming so I said no deal - all or nothing. She decided to do it, and I fetched the hose for her. She did not want me to start any vacuuming without her and kept repeating herself when she heard me plug the vacuum in (it's a central vac). It made me happy to see her want to do it all by herself. Of course, I ended up helping because there were more bugs than she could manage to get up (we don't go up there a lot and it is a bug magnet!!). After we finished that chore, we moved some children's books from there to the other loft where the playroom is. I recently got my childhood bookcase and was so happy to get to fill it with Summer's books and some of my old books too. I'll cherish it forever or as long as it lasts! Around 7:30, Summer picked a few books from its shelves and brought them to her bed for me to read. The perfect ending to her first day of school.

Day 2 of Kindergarten

This morning Summer wanted me to walk her in. I agreed to but told her I can't keep doing it all the time. Hopefully, she will be able to get herself and Lexie to their classrooms next week by herself or with the help of a teacher. I'm not really looking forward to that either. I love all the time I can get with her! When we got to her classroom, she hung up her book bag under her cubbie and sat down at a table with paper, markers and stencils. No frowns or sudden illnesses occurred unlike last year when she went to preschool for a few months. So, I kissed her on the cheek and reminded her of our lunch date and left. No tears yet again. I'm amazed at her and myself. I knew she would love it though once she started. When I picked her up today, her teacher walked her to the car and she was all smiles. She scolded Trixie for barking at her teacher and we were off to lunch with Lexie. She made another friend today which puts her up to 2 so far. She's going to totally rock at school. She moved up a color today which means she did better than yesterday. She was explaining to me that there are two bad colors: purple="Teacher's choice" (note, email or phone call to parents - this is the worst) and blue="think about it" (aka time out). There are three good colors: green ="ready to learn," yellow="good day" and orange-"great day." Yesterday, she was green which is where they start at, and today she was yellow. She was happy to inform me of her increase in status. Looks like the year is off to a good start. My little girl is growing up!!!!