First Day

Well, today was Natalie's first official day of kindergarten! She was so excited she was up at 6 and ready by 7! Which is great, except we didn't have to leave the house until 9:15. She was so impatient to get to school, she was asking every ten minutes if it was time to leave, so I had to put a movie on to tide over the time. Even with the movie, she asked every half hour, haha.
Normally she'll ride the bus to school, but today I drove her in. We left Alexis with Grandma today, so it was just Natalie and I. On the way there, Natalie informed me that she didn't need me to take her in to her classroom, that she knew where her classroom was and she could go in by herself. I immediately vetoed that one and told her that she may not need me to take her in, but I needed me to take her in. She said I was funny. I took her in, helped her unload her supplies on the table, made her find her clip on name tag, helped her clip it on and then she went to her desk and started the morning worksheet that was waiting there. Mrs. Benson (her teacher) then invited the parents that were still there to hang around and watch the morning routine. So I hung around and watched them do the flag salute, sing a couple songs, count to 20, etc. Natalie didn't know what to think about the flag salute. We hadn't talked about that at all and I think she was a bit uncomfortable doing something she didn't know anything about. I have a feeling it won't be long and she'll be teaching it to Alexis. :) Everything else they did, she already easily knew, and everytime the did something that she knew, she'd look at me with a big smile and give me a thumbs up sign. It made me laugh, I just wish I had thought to bring a camera, oh well.


I can't believe she's a kindergartner already! It just seems yesterday she was just a baby. I always thought that when this day would come, that I wouldn't be emotional, that being a teacher I would be exempt from it. But I didn't think of it through the parent aspect of it and I admit, on my way home I cried a little. I guess it's something about the realization that she's an official KID now and no longer my baby. Before this step, you can always justify that they're still totally dependant on you as a parent. But now, you'll have to start letting them become an independent person, to figure things out on their own. I've always let her be independent, but somehow now it's different. I'm sitting here trying to word it to explain it, but it's one of those things, that until you live it, you can't know how it feels, an unexplainable feeling.

Have a great first day at school, Natalie!! Mommy loves you a lot!!!