Thursday, August 25, 2005

Our time now belongs to the man...

Today is the first day of kindergarten, sniff, sniff. Yesterday at the "meet the teacher" event my daughter had exactly three temper tantrums. That is one every 15 minutes. Not a great start.

I know Lulu is having a hard time adjusting to all this new stuff. That would explain the crying, hair twirling, finger sucking, asking for a bottle behavior. I swear if she asks me for a diaper I might cry. I just hope that she is able to have good school experience. She was so excited today to go on the bus. By the time I saw her waving from the window we were both crying.

"Please, please, please let her have a good time and make a new friend" is my mantra.

We have a first day of school tradition. The child is allowed to have whatever he/she wants for breakfast. Anything. This is what my parents did and it was pretty fun. I always wanted biscuits and gravy. Lauren wanted steak and blueberry muffins w/ pink frosting and pixie dust. Alberstons was out of pixie dust, so I just put parsley on it. She totally ate it so I guess frosting and parsley isn't too bad. :-)

I still can't believe that I have a child old enough for school. It is the beginning of standardized tests, planning vacations around school breaks, parent teacher conferences, etc. I feel ready and not ready at the same time. When she was 2 1/2 I used to dream about the day she would go to school. ...

9 comments:

C. Jane Kendrick said...

i am excited for you, and feel sad for you at the same time.
i would choose french toast with maple syrup, claire on the otherhand she would probably choose cookies...just a guess though
great tradition!!!

~j. said...

That IS a great tradition.

Last year my oldest started kindergarten. The whole drive there I kept asking her if she'd be okay, how she felt, etc., reminding her about what we had learned at Meet Your Teacher Night, reminding her to remember manners, all that crap. And she got out of the van and waved and I drove away. I was sad/relieved/anxious/excited, and felt other things I couldn't explain. This year was the same, but the reminders were about eating her lunch at school (such a leap in kid-dom!). I felt the same way driving away. My relief was that I had other little people at home with me, even if the oldest was gone. When the youngest waves goodbye, I'll need therapy.

Suzie Petunia said...

Such an exciting step! I couldn't wait for my daughter to start kindergarden. When I dropped her off in her classroom that first morning there were several mothers crying and I seriously couldn't understand what the problem was. I was excited and she was excited... and I got a 2.5 hour break! Maybe I'll feel differently when my youngest goes to school. But probably not. :)

Unknown said...

I still can't believe she's old enough to be going to Kindergarten! Last weekend when everyone was home (except you and Brad of course) I was talking to Abigail, I swore she was 5 going on 6. Turns out she's actually going on 7! When did these kids get so old?

I bet Lulu is the cutest kindergartener there though.

~j. said...

So...how did it go??

wendysue said...

I remember last year sending Madison off to Kindergarten, I had this sudden fear that time had gone too fast (and it had, of course.) I wondered if I had taught her enough about what's right and what's wrong, and how to treat others, and how to listen and how to. . .
I had a little twinge of sadness as she headed into the classroom but a little excited too--it's amazing to see your kids grow and change. Scary but exciting! (Kind of like the tip top of the roller coaster before you head down the big drop!)
On Monday, she becomes a big first-grader! (you're right Jenny, that whole eating lunch at school thing is HUGE! I keep worrying what if she drops her tray and everyone goes "OOOHHHHHHH!" like we did in school??) and it doesn't help that she is so tall that everyone asks if she's staring 3rd or 4th grade. . . hey, she's just a baby!! MY baby!! And by the way, when did I get old enough to have a 1st grader???

Lisa said...

OH Lauren, what a doll!!!
Well, I don't mean to show off, BUT I have a second grader now and he thinks he's so cool (do you remember what it was like to be "cool" in the second grade?) and it was "no big deal" for him to go, and my second goes to kindergarten this week and I"m really sad cause he's my buddy. I know it's not even a big break (2.5 hours), but it represents them leaving home. I know it sounds like I'm making it into a dramatic step, but it's the first one. Erbecca, you know how I feel about crying anyway :0)

dalene said...

Stoic though I am, I always blink back tears sending my babies to kindergarten. My hardest kindergarten experience wasn't with my baby (1st grade this year), it was with my only daughter (child 3 of 4). At that same time one of my good friends was quite miserable over marrying off her first daughter. I saw how hard it can be to have your kids really leave (up to that point I thought they really left when they went to school--how naive). So in my mind, during the whole agonizing two-block walk to Westridge, it was like following Lindsay through her whole childhood and youth and watching her walk away--without looking back--into adulthood. It was awful. (Or maybe I just have an overactive imagination.)

In a way, however, getting through and over that made the rest not so hard. It also helped me remember to try to enjoy the fleeting moments I have left in between.

Bek said...

You guys are nice.

Lisa, the reason that I don't feel bad about being overly emotional and not crying much (except for the last year, solid) is because you have enough for both of us!! It is a good thing. If I didn't have friends like you my emotion chip would get rusty and go away.

reb