She's a First Grader!

So, as I sit here and type, my baby...my precious precious, sweet innocent child....is off by herself in a big bad school for 7 hours. And will be there from now to eternity every day of her life.

Ok. I may be a TAD bit exaggerating. But, that's what it feels like. You mold these children. You raise them. You want them to go off and be successful little beings, making new friends, respecting new teachers, forming their own opinions, and learning new things. But it is still so hard to just send them off. After 6 years of being home with me, I feel like the umbilical cord has been cut all over again. However, this time, I had 6 years of getting to know and love and care about her first!

I realize that she has been in school for the last 4 years of her life, but its an all together different ball game when you send them off to public school. Or maybe its just a 'big school'. As opposed to a small day school, or mother's day out, or even a half day preschool...whatever. Its different. I feel like I pushed her out the door and am trusting the whole assembly of the school to watch over her, guide her, teach her, and mold her. Its losing a little bit of the control I have over her environment. There are so many big scary things out there that you want to protect your children from...forever. However, its not possible. And that day has come where Brooke is off in that world. While 1st grade may seem petty, its the start for us. The start to her being 'out there' in the real world. So I am left here, on Monday morning, while she is learning the ropes, to reminisce. To think about how it seems like just a short while ago, she was a chunky newborn blob. She went from that to a wiggly blob to a crawling baby to a walking/talking toddler to a curious preschooler to an avid reading kindergartener to.... a big 1st grader. How does it happen so quickly?!?!

sigh.

It does, Brandy. Get over it.

So anyway.

Of COURSE I took pictures of this monumental occasion. In fact, so much so, that we just went ahead and decided to do a lot of these pictures ahead of time, so as to not be rushed the morning of. ;) Here are our (before-going-to-school), back-to-school pictures.

It went rather smoothly, all things considered. We had cut out naps last week. She still desperately needs or wants to nap, but does...eh,...okay without them. She just really tires out by 2pm. We tried adjusting bedtime back to 7-7:30, but its hard to get them to sleep when the sun is pouring in their window!

The night before I swear I had a checklist a mile long that we went over - 'ok. don't forget to take your lunchbox to eat - you are not eating the cafeteria food right away. Be sure to be nice and make friends. Even if there's a group of girls already friends, don't be shy - go up and introduce yourself. (I will, Mommy!) Remember, at the playground, when playtime is over, pay attention and stay with your class so you don't get left behind. Listen to your teacher. Stay with your class. Make friends. (you already said that Mommy.) Make sure you pee when given the opportunity (ok...y'all may think this is dumb, but Brooke will literally hold her pee all day with no accidents, but it causes her to lose focus). The playground is a great opportunity to make new friends - don't be shy! (I won't Mommy.) Ok. And last one. This is most important. When you get in the car after school, you tell me EVERYTHING that happened the whole day.' :)

We also had to go through a training regimen on her lunchbox of opening, closing, etc all by herself. Don't laugh. Its kinda tricky. The container her sandwich is in is kinda hard to open. So she got that down (I hope) or hopefully her teacher can help. And the night before, I made sure to include a sweet napkin note for her. :)

Anyway, she was up bright and early at 7am (actually 5 minutes before her alarm went off) to eat breakfast and get to school by 8:30. She was super duper excited. She was maybe a tad bit nervous...but more like an anxious, 'what will it be like?' kinda nervous...not scared. Just excited. Her only questions were trying to get the timing down. "Ok, exactly how long am I at school each day?" :) Her only other question??? "Can I ride the bus?"

Daddy decided to go in late to work to escort her (and me!) to school this monumental day. And we were able to walk her in and send her off.

Being new to this, I didn't know what kind of craziness to expect at dropoff on the first day. But it wasn't too bad. We got there just after 8, school starts at 8:30, but they can enter the room at 8:05. Parked close and everything. They seem to have a good system going. Lots of excitement was in the air as the kiddos walked in. The principal was there and greeted Brooke (and the other kids) and we reminded her where/how to get to her room/wing. Since we didn't get to visit the room at Meet the Teacher, that part was kinda new to us. But we found Mrs Taylor right away and found Brooke's name on a table/desk. There was one other little girl sitting there, who looked just as shy and quiet as Brooke is that Mrs Taylor told me is also new to the school. All the other parents were bringing their kids in and several stopped to tell me what a wonderful teacher Brooke has - that she is their best 1st grade teacher. (nice to hear...again, and again!) She hung her backpack on her chair. They were still putting things back in place from the water leak incident so Mrs Taylor said they would all have a place for their things that they'd go through that later in the day. And Brooke went right to coloring her paper. She didn't talk to the other kids. *shrugs* But I hope that changes.

I prayed over my little girl as we left the house this morning, asking God to help her to have a great first day, to make new friends, to have courage to speak up and to help keep her safe. And I trust that He will do that and she will have a great first day!

I'm not going to pretend this is a easy transition for me... though I only shed one tear as we were getting out of the car (I was proud of myself!). But I am also very excited for her to begin this journey in her life and can't wait to see what she learns and becomes.

(Only 2 more hours till I can leave to go pick her up.) :P