THE BIG K: part 1

There are many milestones in the lives of our children. They are born, that's a big day. Then there are first words, first steps, first tooth, and every first is so special and important. And when you are holding that sweet new baby, you cannot even fathom how quickly the time is going to zoom by. Even though, I swear that I was just holding my sweet new baby girl, she started Kindergarten today. This is so hard! She has done preschool and Pre-K, but this is so much more real.

For weeks, when we talked about her first day, she told me that she was not going to cry, but that I would. The good news is that they sort of ease into things here. Today is the first day of school, but for Kindergarten, they have an open house the first day. This means that it is not a full day AND that your parents get to stay with you. Then on Friday, she will have her first real, full day of school. We are talking bus and everything.

So we got up and got ready to go. I will admit that tears were streaming down my face when I saw her bus pull up and pick up the bigger kids - and she was not even on it! I may need sedation tomorrow. . .

Doesn't that bus look too big for my baby?

I almost cry just looking at it, and she was not even on it!

A traditional "first day of school on the porch" shot.

It is required that all parents take photos like this. It's in the handbook. I checked.

We loaded up and went to the office. See, Spencer had a date with his Bay and Joyce (his awesome secretary) to hang while we took Jessa to the BIG K. So Spencer headed into the building, while David headed out.

She is only barely tolerating me and my camera at this point.

We parked across the street from school and crossed the street (after posing for a few pictures, of course) - aided by a real crossing guard.

We walked all the way into school and went to the Kindergarten hall.

We found her classroom - it looks inviting, huh??

It all happened so fast. It's a blur. It is all so new and overwhelming, but Jessa jumped right in. I started putting her supplies in the wrong class bins. Thank goodness I had David to keep me straight. Jessa was so calm. She marched right in there and found her LOCKER. Yes, my sweet 5 year old kindergartner has a locker! (She was over the moon about this.) She put her backpack in her very own locker and found her chair. She is at the green table. Her class number is 8. She has a mailbox for papers to bring home, a lunch pocket, and a discipline chart all with the number 8 on it. Her bus number is 7. I hope she does not bring home #7's papers and get on the #8 bus. Don't worry, the teacher said that they will pin an orange bus pass on her shirt tomorrow. Whew.

Everything is all labeled - Jessa just LOVES seeing her name everywhere!

There was a piece of paper at each place where they had to write their name and draw a picture of anything they wanted. She chose to write her name with curls. She is fancy that way. And then she drew a duck. (not a blue duck, but the Billy Madison fan in David was hoping) There was a lake that the duck was swimming in. The duck had a hat. There was even a crossing guard there to help the duck cross the stream. (why did I not take a picture of her drawing!? darn it!) David, the obnoxious, I mean, proud father that he is made sure to look at all the other drawings to see how Jessa's stacked up. He was pleased. But he was not at all biased, right??

Jessa hard at work and David checking out every one's progress.

We put away her gym shoes, her change of clothes, her beach towel, and her activity book into her locker. (it sounds like a strange list, but I am not questioning things.) And then it was time to say hello to her teacher and have her picture made.

After she cheesed for the camera, I told her it was time to go. If you could have seen the look on my sweet, excited Kindergartner's face - suffice it to say it was not happy. And she said in a not so nice tone, "We cannot leave now!! I have not even learned anything yet!" How dare we make her leave this house of learning? We were tickled at her earnest desire to hang around, but it quickly became frustrating as we walked the long road back to the car. She stopped speaking and pouted the entire way to the car. A few non-verbal growls came out of my precious angel. Just darling!

We had to hurry back to the office so that David could get back to work. AND I couldn't wait to check on Spencer and see how his visit with Bay and Miss Joyce went. It went well, I'd say. All the ladies in the office were fawning over him and he ate it up! I did love to walk into Bay's office and see Olivia on one of his big computer screens with Spencer kicked back in a chair eating a bowl of popcorn. They both wanted to hang with Bay and Miss Joyce all day. They were sad to leave. I am striking out all over the place today!!

Spencer loving the special attention he got with his Bay. The whole place was tickled to see cartoons on the chief of staff's computer.

AND I did not cry, much.

Now tomorrow.

Jessa at the bus stop.

Seeing the bus pull away.

No promises.