Today was Alivia's 1st Day of Kindergarten at Standing Bear Elementary School. The morning was full of anxiety, nervousness and tears (and that was just Mommy!)! Alivia ate her breakfast of Honeynut Kix and was ready to go. We started our walk to school at 8:15, arriving early so that we could pack up her locker and take some pictures. Alivia shares a rather small locker where she stores her gym shoes, nap mat, backpack and eventually her coat and snow boots. We added a few family pictures for Alivia to look at in her locker, as well as in her desk and in her lunch box!
Alivia seemed nervous but excited to start Kindergarten. At 8:35, students lined up outside of the school building where they wait until 8:45. We will now be arriving to school at 8:44. It was very crowded and overwhelming! Once inside, Alivia was greeted by Miss Moran and her 23 classmates (yes, we were surprised by the large class size!). She sat at her desk and started to play with play-doh. Alivia gave each of us hugs and said good-bye. Her little face was red, but Alivia was strong and never cried! It was really difficult for Chris and I to walk away and leave her into someone else's hands. The walk home we talked ourselves into the new reality: Alivia is ready so we have to be.
Meanwhile, Addison and Asher hardly skipped a beat. Addison invited Asher to play with her, then they colored, played play-doh and played on the play set. I tried to get them to watch Caillou, Alivia's favorite cartoon on PBS, but they had no interest.
At 11:20, Chris met Alivia for lunch. She enjoyed seeing Daddy, but was pretty quiet about the morning's activities. She ibrought her lunch to school in a Hello Kitty lunch box, and I think she will continue to do so (perhaps she likes what I am packing in her lunch or the pictures I left inside! :) ).
As I sit here at quiet time, I really miss Alivia. This was our time together, and it just is not the same without her. I guess I will have to get used to this new normal. I did get an email from Miss Moran, Alivia's teacher, reporting that she was doing fine! She said that although Alivia is quiet, Alivia told Miss Moran about riding her bike this summer and is getting her needs met. Yeah!
We walked to pick up Alivia at 3:40. Pick up was crazy, too. Nobody knew what door the kids were going to come out of. Alivia saw us and ran to give us a hug. She was very talkative about the day, telling us about coloring, naptime, recess, etc. I asked what her favorite part of the day was and she said, "All of it was my favorite!" After an icecream cone from the DQ as a treat for her accomplishment, I selected her clothes for tomorrow. Alivia asked, "Where are we going tomorrow?" Then she quickly answered her own question, "Oh yeah, I get to go to Kindergarten!"
2 comments:
I've been thinking about you guys all day! I hope it went well! I LOVE the apple dress :) I can't beleive I'll be in your shoes in a year! Maybe I'll hold him another year just because I can't let him go!! No, I won't, he's already excited and it's a year away!
Oh, that is so cute! I'm glad she had a good day! My friend who has a girl at standing bear in kindg. posted pics of her first day and you and Chris are in the background!! You are holding Alivia and Chris has Asher.
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