School Stories

Rachel's first day ended just about as well as it started: with me a worried mess inside. I had worked from home and around 3:00 it dawned on me: I have NO idea what time her bus picks her up at the Goddard School and when she arrives back again. Around 3:30 I heard buses in the neighborhood and just wanting to make sure my child arrived back home safe and sound after being with "strangers" all day (Because I don't know these people yet!!) I hopped in the car and drove to Goddard. And she wasn't there. And I felt ridiculous. So I asked and was told the buses usually come around 4:10. I was more than 30 minutes early. I live 2 minutes away, so I went home and tried to find something to distract myself (online shopping). At 4 I arrive back at the school on pins and needles. The "bus lady" (is what I call her in my head.....I've seen her before taking attendance of the kids the get off the buses each day) is waiting in the foyer of the Goddard School. They tell me I'm early so I decide to wait.

4:15 rolls around.....no buses. For them, it's just another normal day at work. The buses are running late, which is to be expected. I mean, first day and getting kids used to where they're supposed to go. One can only assume they'd be late.

4:25 rolls around. No buses.

4:30 - BUSES!!!!!! Up pulls bus #3 and guess who got off first?!

She sees me and runs into my waiting arms where I hold her tightly for just a little longer than usual. She had a big smile on her face. As if the day were exciting the whole time. I was so proud of her. Not so much myself.....I mean....I almost kept from panicking....but not quite.

Before we leave to get in the car she dives into a story that was about lunch time. Of course. The first memory of her first day of Kindergarten is going to be lunch. With big eyes and lots of excitement she tells me that she got a tray, with noodles on it and there was bread on top of that and berries and CHOCOLATE MILK! (noodles = spaghetti in our house for some reason). And she carried it ALL BY HERSELF and didn't drop it!!

She then told me she got to play outside with Bentley, who is apparently a little boy in her classroom and they had a good time.

Later she told her lunch story to my parents as we had dinner at their house and instead of the word tray she kept saying she ate on a "board". Later that evening at home we talked with Aunt Gail and she used the word "Board" again. Props for vocabulary, but to anyone else it sounds like we're neanderthals and don't have plates.,

Her second day was less exciting than the first, and her favorite part of the day was recess where she again played with Bentley. She also said she saw the "girl with the pony tail" (I think she meant my friend's daughter Lizzy, whom we met at the Ice Cream Social.)

On the morning of her second day she begged to take her lunch box with her that Aunt Gail got her. It's a My Little Pony Lunch Box and I would be excited too if I were her! But the teacher had asked that we allow the kids to eat school lunch so they can get used to the process. Starting next week I'll probably pack a lunch for a day or two so she can use her new lunch box and Minions thermos.

I wanted to document a non school story here. Last night after her second day she was in the tub and began singing a song, which isn't unusual. She sings a lot. If you've not seen the movie "Home" with Jim Parsons and Rhianna I recommend it. It's adorable. In it there are these little aliens called "Boov" that take over Earth. Rachel begins singing "Boov has got it oooooooooooooh. oooooooooh. Boov has got it oooooooooh. ooooooooooh." I realize she's actually singing an Adele song (Rumor has it). I laughed heartily about that one.

Today we've finished up day 3, thereby ending our first week of school. Monday things should feel somewhat normal and less awkward. This morning Rachel was acting a little off.....she wasn't hungry for breakfast so I packed it to take with us to the Goddard School. I also had put her to bed kind of early last night and after several protests I noticed she was sound asleep fairly quickly. So something told me she was off, but I moved on with our day. When she got off the school bus this afternoon (because I was early again) I hugged her and she was way too warm. I know buses may not have air conditioning, but egad. She felt like she'd been in a sauna. As soon as we got home she put on pajamas then headed to the couch where she curled up and promptly fell asleep. Sure enough: 101.9° temperature. She slept for about an hour and I've just given her some Tylenol. I'm not sure if it's all the excitement of everything changing or if she's picked up new kids germs. Either way....I'm glad we made it through her first week. I would have no clue how to call the school and let them know she wasn't coming in due to being sick.

I have so many new rules to learn. And for a 36 year old with a Kindergartner, I shouldn't feel this old. For example: I have been advised to get a twitter account to keep up with school announcements. Are. You. Kidding. Me? I don't tweet. I have Facebook against my will as it's the only way to keep in contact with some friends and families. BOO. And tonight as I tried to look up school lunch ideas....because I haven't ever had to pack a school lunch for my child.....I realized there's this whole new lingo out there I'm not up on. Let me school you with what I found out.

OAMC - Once A Month Cooking
......The heck?! There are people out there that cook once a month? I......I can't.

DD, DS, DH
Dear Daughter
Dear Son
Dear Husband
I cannot believe these are abbreviations. I cannot believe this is lingo. People talk like this. What is happening to our world? I know I've stopped reading the news and really stay away from a lot of the mainstream stuff. But this is what I'm being brought back to? Let me use one in an example. I found a recipe for peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches (YES. Someone wrote out how to make a PB&J) but the point was to talk about freezing them ahead of time....for their OAMC.....and their DH loves them and takes them to work! I've honestly never thought about freezing the sandwiches, so I appreciate this person actually writing out the instructions on the best way to do this. And I'm glad that DD loves them in her lunch box.

And this is what I've learned just this evening with about 15 minutes of lunch idea search time. Most of the ideas are absolutely ludicrous. I wouldn't even eat them. Why would my picky 5 year old? So sandwiches/fruit/veggies she shall have. And if that's not good enough? SCHOOL LUNCH.

I am going to learn a lot on this journey. Possibly more than my elementary aged child.

The First Stay Send Off

Full of anxiety that something will inevitably go wrong, I pulled myself out of bed at the usual time and got Rachel up just like I do every day. Except today was different. We had a special dress picked out to wear. And a backpack to remember that we don't usually have. Today was different.

Willing my feet to take me into Rachel's bedroom I suddenly got the idea to make pancakes. I rarely have time to make them and this morning was different.

I woke up Rachel like I do every morning but this time with the promise of pancakes. She seemed unphased. The excitement of Kindergarten finally arriving and the promise of pancakes didn't seem exciting. I am a morning person with a non-morning person for a daughter. I have extra time allotted in our morning to gently wake her up and get her moving. I need each and every second of that extra allotted time. Every. Morning.

I make pancakes.....and I don't get them made well. There's chunks of pancake batter that didn't quite get mixed right in the pancake I serve her. So much for the perfect start to her first day!!! I try to shrug it off as no big deal. Because it does happen. Even to the superest of moms.

Then we get dressed. I can tell she's shrugging off the sleepies. She is becoming excited about getting her pretty dress on. She likes playing dress up, but today is special. Because usually I don't allow fun dresses to be worn to school. (WHY?! Because my kid's favorite activities are paint and markers. Therefore: frequently ruined clothing). Today? I'm willing to relax that rule knowing this dress might come home stained. (WHY? Because today may not be as special to her as it is to me and I want her in a dress, dang it.)

Whew. We're dressed., Extra clothes are in her backpack. What does a Kindergartner take to school in a backpack? 'Cuz I'm kind of feeling silly sending this kid to school with an empty bag that's about the same size that she is. Her school supplies are already at school. Should I put something in there to take up space? Like  blanket or pillow so her bag is all poofed out? No.....let's put the nonsense aside, Allison. Logic must prevail. Keep it together. *Deep Breath.*

Time to walk out the door. I carefully pick up the little chalk board I'd painstakingly wrote on the night before so it would be all ready.

SIDE BAR - this chalk board.
You know how everyone keeps posting pictures of their kids first days and they're holding signs of all variations? I decided (at the last minute of course) that I wanted one too. And a special outfit for her to wear. I went away last weekend owning neither. So I reached out to a friend of mine and asked her if she might have time to make one. She'd made a similar sign for her daughter's 1st birthday a few years ago and is pretty artsy. She told me she'd take care of it. Tuesday evening I get a text from her that it was done and delivered to my door. She refused to let me pay her for it. I cannot tell you what this gesture meant to me. I have a chalk board I didn't make (and therefore wouldn't criticize) and it was as adorable as I had wanted. I wouldn't have been happy with one I made myself and couldn't really decide on what I wanted anyway. It was perfect and was one more detail that made this first day a little easier for me.

So we head out to a tree we had planted about a month ago to take her picture. My aunt planted a gorgeous tree in her front yard the year I started Kindergarten. It's still there. And I have photos of me with it around the time I started Kindergarten. Now we also have a tree that was planted the year Rachel goes to Kindergarten and I hope we get to take photos there every year.

Ok ok ok.....photos. Here you go.

Look at how big the backpack looks on her!!!

The Life Guard thing? This is the sweetest story.

Monday they had an ice cream social at school for the kids to meet their teachers, see their classrooms, find their way around, etc. I left work a little late and ran through the drive thru for dinner. We sat in the parking lot of the school eating before the event began. Knowing the chalk board was coming I asked some random questions.....such as what is your favorite color, what's the name of your teacher (to make sure she knew) and then asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Her response was immediately to pause and think. After a moment she looked at me and said, "A swimmer."

???????? Um........huh? How are you supposed to react? I tried to remain calm and nonreactive.

"Oh. Ok. Sure! Why do you want to be a swimmer?"

"So I can jump in the pool and help people when they can't swim and give them floaties".

My heart be still. This stems from an event that happened last summer. We were at a public pool and Jason and I were sitting on chairs talking while Rachel played in the kiddie pool. She got to the other end and it was deeper than I had thought and she couldn't swim. She didn't have her life jacket on yet as we hadn't been there that long. Jason noticed her in distress and I jumped up and flew across the pool, floundering to get to her quicker than humanly possible. The lifeguard near her did nothing. Didn't react. Another parent near me saw what happened and asked the Lifeguard why she didn't help. The Life guard didn't react. Another parent reported this teenage kid....and I'm sure nothing came about of it. Rachel was terrified the rest of the summer of the water (and we didn't go back to that pool again). In January I signed her up for swim classes to have someone else help her be ok with being in the water. It worked. This summer, with the help of noodles and water wings this kid is fearless when it comes to swimming. We visited a nearby neighborhood pool that has a lifeguard and Rachel was intrigued by this girl for some reason. They take a 15 minute break every hour and Rachel wanted to know what she was doing the whole time. Even talking to the lifeguard while she was watching the water.

Now, here we are a year later and this kid wants to grow up to help other kids not be scared of the water like she was. Amazing I tell you.

Back to the first day of school......

I drop her off at her Day Care and the teachers are more chatty than usual, and I appreciate it. I think they're all anxious about the first day of school and the changes to the routine that will happen as a result of it.

Then I drop her off, grit my teeth, and walk back out the door. But I keep it together! Noooooooooooooo tears for me. (of course none for her. She gets to ride the school bus and finally carry her backpack.)

I get home and begin working.....kind of not sure what to do with myself as my list is a mile long. My phone has been going off with texts from friends and family members who are enjoying the photos I've sent or asking me how it went.

I notice a text from a lady whose child also went to Goddard and we've had a play date before. She was dropping her daughter off at school and saw Rachel. She snapped these pictures and sent them to me:

She told me the process to get the kids in the building was pretty organized and everyone seemed to be doing ok. For some reason that squashed some of my anxiety about the whole idea of letting strangers take care of my kid. Honestly.....I REALLY don't know these people. But we've done it. We've gotten over the hump of dealing with the first day. I'll be anxious to hear how it went! I'll try to post again when I have details on everything.

Preparing for Kindergarten

The time is quickly approaching where Rachel will officially be a "Big Kid", in my opinion. Tomorrow is her last full day before she crosses another milestone. The process for preparing her for school has been lengthy. At least from a parents' perspective. For her, she's excited to go to a big school with a new classroom. She's still innocent and oblivious to what's going on around her. And for the most part, this is good.

For her, emotionally, this week isn't that big of a deal. For me, it is. Last week I was completely logical. This isn't a big deal, we'll have a couple of days of transition and boom: we'll fall into a routine. Today as we attended the ice cream social where literally 600 people descend on the school to meet the teacher, drop off school supplies, wait in a L-O-N-G line for cheap ice cream and then run into other families doing the same I began to sunk in: my kid's growing up. And while that is sad for me, I'm also thrilled.

Some milestones in Rachel's short life I feel have been me dragging her kicking and screaming to cross them. Like potty training. Can I get an Amen that she's attending school potty trained?! Anyone else remember me commenting about how at the age of 3 she was showing ZERO interest in the matter and therefore I was afraid I'd be dealing with that at the last minute?

And the pacifier? Without the help of my in-laws who mistakenly (and with all honesty) lost her "night night" under a piece of unknown furniture that little device would still be in our lives and braces would cost us a fortune way ahead of time. And yet, here we are....sans pacifier.

Which brings me to now. She may not be able to tie her shoes or read many words. But I am honestly humbled that each time I take this child somewhere new or introduce her to someone else she is so well behaved. She gave her teacher a hug as she met her for the first time tonight and I could tell the teacher melted a little. She'll hug anyone I introduce her to as a way of saying goodbye because I insist she do that to our family members and she's just become comfortable with doing so.

Although her follow through sometimes needs a bit of work, her heart is tender and she is aware of the emotional atmosphere in the room around her. She is constantly thinking of others and asking how to help.

No, we don't get to go to the playground as often as either she or I would like. No, we don't run all over the place experiencing a ton of new places and things right now either. Unfortunately, we have too much going on.

But this kid takes joy in the little things. She will innocently ask for something (A birthday party, a new toy, a trip to this or that) and when I explain to her why we can't/won't/shouldn't or even might, there's no whining or tears anymore. I can take her to the toy store and let her look at the toys now without fear I'll have to buy something or suffer a melt down.

For being 5, this is a pretty phenomenal kid. So.....here we go. Ready to pull her though, one milestone at a time....to graduate in 2029.