Day Two

Today was Amanda's second day of school. Sarah has been going every day this week, since she is in Kindergarten, but Amanda only goes twice a week. It took some coaxing, especially since Charlie wasn't here and she loves for Charlie to get her ready in the morning, but I was able to get her dressed in a uniform shirt (unfortunately the uniform does have not Elmo or Cookie Monster on it) and shoes that were not Crocs (family rule you can't wear Crocs to school because of the annoying wood chips on the playground that get in your shoes). She even ate a bowl of cereal this morning, no frozen waffles, and let me do her hair. This is hard core. We almost made it out of the house without an incident until we had to put Sarah's shoes on.

Amanda wanted to put Sarah's shoes on Sarah's feet. Except with Sarah's braces it is almost impossible for me to put them on, let alone Amanda. So, after nicely asking several times for her to give me the shoe, I finally had to rip it out of her hands. That's when she lost it. She refused to leave the house, refused to let me buckle her in her seat (I'm getting very good at the "hold the child down with one elbow while you buckle the car seat" maneuver), kicked her shoes off after she was trapped in her seat (that's her only way of rebelling, she refuses to wear her shoes), and cried all the way to school. That was a lot of crying because first we had to drop Andy off with a friend who was driving him to camp, then stop by the drive through blue boxes at the post office, then finally get to school.

When I tried to take her out of her seat at school she kept trying to buckle herself back in. I was able to get one shoe on but she refused to wear the other. So I handed her shoe to her teacher and then had to pry her screaming self off my body so I could leave the room. I think the first day wasn't that bad because she didn't know what to expect, but the second day she knew exactly what was going on and that I wasn't coming back for a long time.

In the end, after I left, she calmed down and had a wonderful time as I knew she would. It is so great for her to be away from me a bit and get a chance to make some friends of her own that are her age. It's good for both of us. I just hope it gets a little easier for her. Otherwise it's going to be a long year.