First Day of School Part II

Today was the first day of school for Sarah and Amanda.  Amanda was pretty excited about Kindergarten a while ago, but lately not so much.  Regardless, they were up early.  By 7a Sarah was already in the shower.  We decided fourth grade was the year that she was going to shower every day.  Not that she smells, but that the day that she consistently will is coming sooner than later so I thought it would be good for her to get in the habit of showering in preparation for school.  Both girls were dressed and just messing with their hair by 7:30a.  Nice.

We took some pictures before we left for school and then we were on our way.  The placement of their lines (they wait outside until the bell rings unless it is less than 30 degrees or it is raining) worked out pretty well because we have to walk past Sarah's class to get to Amanda's.  So we dropped her with her class and teacher and then headed up the the Kindergarten classroom.  At this point Amanda was not so happy and as I gave her one last hug before she went into her room she started to cry and had to wipe her tears as she walked away from me.  I felt a little sorry for her but knew she was going to have a great day.

I wasn't sad at all today because I have been waiting for this day for a very long time.  The day when all three of my kids are in school full day.  But then I read an article that changed my mood.  I realized that I've been so worried about Andy and his first day of middle school and how he's growing up so quickly and Amanda and how little she still is (or thinks she is) and how she would rather be home with me, that I kind of haven't been thinking about Sarah.  Sarah, who got up this morning without an alarm and took a shower and got dressed and brushed her hair and only asked me for help when she was deciding what shoes to wear.  She did it all on her own.  Somewhere while I was busy worrying about the other two she matured and stepped up and took care of herself.  Wow.  And how funny that it coincides with National Middle Child Day, a totally made up holiday but whatever it was all over my newsfeed, which she thought was pretty cool when I mentioned it to her.

I picked up the girls after school and they couldn't wait to tell me about their days.  They both loved their teachers and really enjoyed school, which I knew they would.  Amanda had so much to talk about I couldn't get her to stop.  One of the benefits of having a girl, because boys don't tell you much.

At dinner tonight I asked Amanda if she was going to cry again.  She said yes.  I asked her when it was going to stop.  She replied, "when I get to middle school".  This should be a very interesting year!