Gartening

Whew boy!  I barely remember how to log into my blog these days.  However, today was far too momentous for me to allow it to go undocumented.

My firstborn, my amazing, sweet, clever, hilarious, CONFIDENT daughter went off to Kindergarten today.  She was nothing but excited, for which I am very thankful.  Emily's best friend, I am told, has been crying herself to sleep at night because she's worried about starting Kindergarten and as a parent that must be SO difficult to watch :-(

I started to feel kind of "pre-nostalgic" last night as I packed her lunch.  I didn't expect Kindergarten to feel much different (for me) than Preschool, but it definitely does.  As I packed her lunch I was very conscious of the fact that I would be doing this practically every night for the next 16 years.  Yes, that includes Charlotte and assumes that they'll still WANT me to pack their lunches when they're in high school (not likely), but it still felt like something big was starting now.

I did ok at drop off, though it still felt weird.  This is the longest stretch of time by a long shot that I've ever left her in the care of someone who isn't family.  I am happy that we were able to walk her into the cafeteria and make sure she found her teacher vs. having to just wave goodbye at the bus stop.  Plus this way Will was able to see what the kids who qualify for school-provided breakfasts were eating, and listening to Will rant about corndog-ed sausage and sugar cereal with strawberry milk distracted me on our way out.  I actually didn't cry!  I did just fine as we drove away, I did just fine through phone conversations with both the Grandmas, but I started to tear up in Zumba, if you can believe it.  The teacher asked if there were any Kindergarten mothers in the class, then came over and gave me a hug.  You know what happens when you're emotionally teetering and someone hugs you, right?  It was just a couple sniffles though, then I had to suck it up because what looks more ridiculous than a crying 31 year old American woman Salsa dancing?  The answer is: not much.

First day of school 2010

First day of school 2011

First day of school 2012

She needed a new GIRLY backpack this year.

She is so good about posing for endless pictures for her mommy

All she asks in return is that I snap some shots in poses of HER choosing too.

Take a picture of me like this, mommy

The jealous little sister who desperately wants to go to school too

Such a grown-up lady!

I'm a big girl too!

I won't force her to pose for a picture like this every year, but as long as she is willing, I'll take advantage!

Where we left her to start her elementary school career :*)

 Zumba distracted me for awhile, then I turned my attention to Charlotte and the doggies.  Yes, we have 2 dogs now!  There will be more on that later :-)  I let Charlotte choose what we did today, and being 2 she decided to do pretty much exactly what we had done on Sunday.  We took the dogs to the new dog park by our house, then had a picnic and played on the playground for a bit.

Naughty Maxx.  Thank goodness the lid was still on.

I packed Charlotte a lunch just like Emmy's, but she still ate most of my salad instead.

Hey...

I see you down there!

Going down the big slide by herself, a skill she just developed last week!

 Then we came home, I put her down for a nap, and I had an hour or two to myself in the house!  Hopefully I can use this new chunk of time to blog regularly again and get a head start on dinner.  I also had to clean this up:

No, it's not barf, it was the applesauce I made this weekend :-(  It fell out of the fridge as I was about to run out the door to Zumba and my useless dogs apparently don't like applesauce much so I had to clean it up myself.  Hmph.

Eventually it was time to go get Emily from school, and once I had figured out how to navigate pick-up (it's much easier for Kindergartners than for anyone else, luckily) we were reunited :-)   She immediately told me that her first day was AMAZING, and took me over to the playground to show me how she could go across the monkey bars by herself!  She also told me her favorite part of the day was recess, she was able to play with the little boy from across the street who is in a different class on the playground, and a girl in her class with long brown hair has a brother or cousin who is in jail and has a beard because he doesn't shave and his hair is long like a girl's hair.  

The thing I had been most worried about was the 4-hour stretch between the end of lunch and the end of the school day where Emily wouldn't be able to have any food.  I warned her teacher that she can be kind of nasty when she gets hungry, but at least for today she seems to have handled it ok.  I'm hoping that it will continue to be a non-issue, but if it does become a problem I'm hoping they'll let me send a medicinal snack (a cheese stick or something?) for her to get at the nurse's office to keep her blood sugar steady.

And what raises your blood sugar faster than a frosting-smothered cupcake?  Emily has been eyeing the specialty cupcakes at Wegmans every time we go by, and I have told her that we would get one someday for a special occasion.  I decided today was the day, and I surprised her by taking her to get one so we could celebrate a great first day of school.  They were like kids in a cupcake shop.

So many choices

Emily chose a princess cupcake

Eating cupcakes in the café while watching SuperWhy

Emily's cupcake was kinda random, but since it actually LOOKED like it was designed by a 5 year old girl I wasn't surprised she was drawn to that particular one.

Let's see, what else do we have laying around that we can stick on top of this thing...

Charlotte's made me laugh, because it was a version of this cupcake that I've seen all over the internet lately. The professional bakers at Wegmans did a fine job decorating it, but by the time Charlotte had carried it to the table it was not very photogenic anymore.

These cupcakes go against everything I believe in healthy eating-wise of course, and I would probably grumble if someone brought them in to feed my kid at school, but sometimes you have to throw the rules out the window.

I hope every day of her school career is as good for Emily as this one was.