Dear Lexi,
Today is your first day of kindergarten and the beginning of a whole new phase of life for us. Carpool lanes and birthday parties and after-school activities and friends and playdates and packing lunches and early morning and a fairly regular routine.
You are attending a private school, St. Vincent De Paul and start at 7:30 in the morning (holy cow!) and finish at 1:35. You wear a cute little uniform. While we were picking them out, you told me ‘I would just prefer dresses mom’. I don’t like the pants or those blue shirts–they look like clothes that boys wear. So you have a couple of dresses and a couple of skirts with cute peter pan white collard shirts.
With the early start time, we’ve slowly been transitioning you to earlier bedtimes in the week leading up to this. Last night, everything went smoothly and you were sleeping by 8:00, which helped you naturally wake up around 6:30 this morning.
Yesterday, you requested to have a donut for breakfast since it was a special morning and you ate that while you watched Doc McStuffins and I put in a headband braid (princess hair as you like to call it).
You showed very little nerves and even said, ‘I can’t believe this is my first day of kindergarten today’. Leading up to this morning you had been telling you me you were a little nervous and the previous night were pretty upset about going to school as you were going to miss playing with your brother and were worried about missing out on what Daddy, William and Kate would be doing without you. To help keep your nervous at bay, I bought you some bracelets and deemed them as ‘Brave Bracelets’ so when you were feeling a little nervous about something, these bracelets would help you be brave. You were so excited by this. You did something in the Laundry room that you said would have normally made you nervous and came back to me and said ‘Mom, they really work. I wasn’t even scared when I touched the pointy thing in the laundry room’
We also started a new tradition last night and the night before school starts, we’ll have ice cream for dinner. The original plan was to go to the ice cream factory, but it was closed so we went to DQ and you had your first Blizzard.
Daddy also spent a lot of time creating a pretty awesome sign for you last night to remember all things YOU when you started Kindergarten. We got pictures of it this morning and then headed out the door.
You chatted nervously in the car asking me if I remember what my first day of kindergarten was like and if I was scared or how did I feel. We talked about how you could choose to eat carrots or apple slices for your snack and then you had your beloved Chicken Wild Rice Soup for lunch, crackers and cookies from Grandma.
When we arrived, you grabbed my hand and confidently walked into school (while I fought back the tears), found your locker, grabbed your headphones and folder and brought it into your class. You put your headphones in your cubby, handed your folder to Mrs. Burke and found your name tag, gave me a quick hug and then began coloring.
Following drop-off, mommy went to the annual ‘Boo-Hoo breakfast’ that your school holds for new families. I got to meet a couple of the other parents and learn more about the school schedule, important dates to know about and have a moment to decompress my emotions a bit.
The day went by quick and the whole family came to pick you up. You didn’t share a whole lot, but said you had a great day.
Love,
Momma
Peanut Smiles 