Lily's first day of Kindergarten (aka our 2nd first day of school)

I was on the phone with my brother today, and we decided I was officially old (apparently I needed help coming to that conclusion). The foremost reason being that I sent my second child to Kindergarten today. She was definitely ready, more than her mom, although I do have to say that I didn't cry this time (that was actually back at Kindergarten registration in the Spring, but, whatever!).

At our school, they stagger the kindergartener's starting days so that they only have a few kids each day until Friday, when everybody goes together for the first time. Lily's assigned day was today (Thursday), so off we went to a classroom full of...three other kids. I wish that were the regular class size! It's nice because she got to spend the entire day today in English: getting lunch, finding the bathroom, going to recess, etc. Tomorrow she will spend the first half of her day in Spanish, so today was definitely a good opener. I'm glad they did it that way, even though Lily was so unhappy to wait out three days of Cami going to school without her.

She was really cute, though--she bought into my explanation of why waiting until Thursday was a good thing earlier this week, and has since explained to everyone, "See, it's lucky that I got to go on Thursday, because some kids had to go Monday, and then they had to stay home for THREE WHOLE DAYS until they get to go again on Friday, so it's lucky for me." :) SO CUTE. I suppose with Maya I'll be telling her, "It's lucky you get to go on Monday, because..." Oh, well. We make the best of what we have, right?


I stayed for the first hour this morning. She told me she didn't want me to stay, but I noticed that when dad left after just a few minutes, she reassured him by saying, "Don't worry, Dad, Mom's going to stay for an hour, right, Mom?" Yay for still needing Mom!


When we went to the Kindergarten back-to-school night, she heard the teachers explaining to the parents how, after a full day of kindergarten, with half of each day in their non-native language, they would most likely come home exhausted and possible cranky/crying. And that all that was normal, etc. So the first thing Lily said when she got home was, "[Fake yawn] I'm SO tired! Mom, remember when Mrs. Everson said we might be tired? Well, [another fake yawn] I'm SO tired." I told her she could go lay down, but she opted to go straight to a snack. Mysterious.


All in all, I think it was a great day. She learned a song that she recognized from Cami, did some fun art projects, and saw kids she knew at recess. Then she got on the bus with Cami and somehow made it all the way back to me in once piece. She's an official Kindergartener!