Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Shelby's first day of kindergarten



Your first day of Kindi. I think you'll be great. You've been ready for this since you came out of the womb. You told me you were tired when I woke you up at 7:30 this morning. Garrett came in to help wake you up. I told you that you could have some cinnamon toast with your breakfast, so that helped to motivate you. I told you that it was going to be a great first day of Kindergarten. Dalton came in and I could tell that he was excited that his sister was finally going to be at school with him.

You ate breakfast, and then fed the cats. You picked out your outfit, and chose your favorite new cat shirt complete with built in vest, silver sparkly leggings, and a short pleated black skirt. You wore your new black vans. SO cute! Then you let me do your hair, which is a pretty big deal, since you usually NEVER let me touch your hair. We tried a french braid, but you didn't really love it. So then we did two braids, and you loved it. I curled the bottoms. You got to wear some of my lip gloss, and even got a piece of my mint gum. Oh, you are grown up!

Dad made your lunch. I think he made you a pb and honey sandwich, sunchips, a clementine, and a little brownie. You wanted it in your tin horse lunch box. Hanna (your bff across the street) was waiting for us. We took some pictures outside, and then started to walk to school. Dad stayed home with Garrett. You were really excited. There were two lawns with their sprinklers on that we walked around, and we saw all the kids with their dogs walking to school. We talked about how we just saw a cute Whoodle yesterday, but you said you still want an Aussie.

We were cutting it close. So when we heard the first bell ring, we ran to the school's lawn, so that you'd be on time. You and Hanna said you were tired after running. Hanna and Dalton walked you to Ms. Smith's Enrichment class. She was old. We found your hook and name tag. We saw a nice looking girl, who was the daughter of a woman your Mom knows. Her name is Gabriella. We had you both sit on the rug like your teacher wanted you to. Shelby, you sat in the teacher's chair, instead of the rug. Your teacher said that that meant you were confident. You were studying the other kids...curious about what was about to happen. I took some more pictures. You hardly noticed that I was still there. The teacher began to shoo the parents out. I was happy for you. Sad for me...cause I can't freeze time. But why waste any energy on that depressing fact. I should be happy that you are so confident, right? No clinging to Mom's leg with you. Your Grandma had sent a text with about 100 emoticons, to tell you to have a great day. I shared it with you before I left the classroom.

I spoke with the Principal before I left the school. Lots of plans and ideas for the school floating around in my head. She promptly smashed the majority of them. We looked at the new kindergarten playground. It looks nice. Now I sit here, with Clifford on in the background, and Garrett driving his dump truck filled with checkers off the living room coffee table. It's sad not to have you in the house. But I am happy for you. You'll learn so much. You were bored at home with us. I can't wait to hear all about it. I can't wait to see how you love life, and what you accomplish and learn. You know, the other day you told me that your biggest wish was that you and your family would never die. I told you that that was MY greatest wish too. I said that that meant that we really were a lot alike. I asked you if you thought that was possible. You said "no". I said, well what should we do about it? You didn't understand. I said that it meant that we needed to be healthy, and careful, so that we could live to be really, really old. And then when we were like 100 years old, and sick of living, then we would be ready to die.

I am going to meet you for lunch today, to see how it goes. I am going to walk you over to Kindergarten, to make sure that your teacher knows just how important you are. I am going to tell myself that it's OK. It's OK that you are almost six, and you want a dog, and you're going to get your ears pierced for your sixth birthday. I am going to tell myself that it's OK that you are getting bigger, because you are more and more fun with each passing day, and we are becoming better and better friends. And I trust that it's going to be OK. It's going to be better than OK. It's going to be wonderful. So stop my crying. I am off to clean the house so that Garrett can tear it apart again.

4 comments:

cheryl said...

What a sweet post. It made me teary-eyed. SHe is an absolute doll! She will love having this written down when she is older. I remember your mom telling me once how hard it was to send each one of you off to school. She said she'd go to the school and ask, "Who is the best most loving teacher? That's the class my child needs to be in."

Ashley said...

Thanks Cheryl, that is so sweet. It is so important to have a loving teacher. :)

karen said...

Happy Kinder Shelbs! She will thrive and love it! she's such a doll. It's always semi-traumatic to start kids in the "rat-race" I think, especially when their schedule is 8:30-4:00 like my poor 6 year old. too much too soon!

love you guys...

Elaichii said...

Aww.. that was a sweet post Ashley! i can't believe Shelby is a kindergartner. I remember the days in Winthrop park in Boston seeing her as a cute little baby.