Junior Kindergarden

This morning began our school adventure, as Alice started junior kindergarten. We woke up to a super duper rainy morning. However, Tom had gone to the store the night before and cooked bacon for breakfast, while Mama had washed and hid the favorite yoga pants/Hello Kitty shirt outfit so we had a happy morning.

Until . . . it was time to go out the door. At that point, all Alice's anxieties about going to school were sublimated into sartorial dilemmas.

It was raining, so rainboots seemed a good choice, but the teacher had said to wear tennis shoes, but it was pouring rain, but her favorite tennis shoes would get her feet wet . . .

Her hello kitty hoodie would be cozy, but we couldn't get the long sleeves just right underneath the hoodie . . .

The backpack couldn't possibly go either under or over the raincoat and either way was waaay to heavy to even carry . . .

Finally we got out the door and down the stairs, but then we had to stop to make sure the yoga pants were just so over the tops of the shoe laces . . .

Recently, Alice has been telling friends she would be taking the bus. We decided to give it a shot, but given the effort it took to get to the front door, much let outside, and given that it was raining Florida-style, I made the executive decision that we would be doing a bus reconnaissance mission and would drive in. That got us out the door and we had a great time walking to the bus stop.




About half a block away, we saw the bus drive past up ahead. Oh well. We decided to walk up anyway to chat with the people waiting for the next bus before heading back to the car. Right about then, a car driving past us did not avoid the giant puddle and absolutely SOAKED us. Special yoga pants first day of school outfit? Drenched. We were intrepid though, and kept going, had a nice chat and learned a neighbor had gotten on the bus. Alice and I decided to wait under shelter there while Tom got the car.

Anxiety caught up with us then, as we stood there in our wet bottoms, and Alice had a hard time getting in her carseat. However, another helpful driver did not avoid a giant puddle, and I stood bent over helping buckle Alice, I felt a cold shower of water splashing all up the backs of my legs, up my skirt, drenching me again, even more thoroughly this time. That was a welcome distraction that allowed us to get buckled in, and off we went to school!



Tom dropped us off and went to find a place to park in the neighborhood. We had been to the school the day before for 'meet the teacher' and I asked Alice if she remember and could show me the way to her classroom. She totally remembered, found her cubby, and hung up her coat and went straight into the room. Her teacher, bless her, had put out a rainbow puzzle which Alice went to immediately with a huge smile and began to play. For the moment, wet pants seemed to be forgotten.



Soon, however, Tom and more families began to arrive. Alice's preschool had ten kids in the class last year, and today began a year with 18 kids. It was a little overwhelming with all the parents and kids and the wet pants issue resurfaced. Her teacher Elika said we could stay in the class till the 2nd bell, so off we went to the cubby to get new pants so we could change in the bathroom.

However, after two trips trying on two different pants (there was a set for school and a set for aftercare which is in a different location), we were back to angst-ing over the wrongness of all the pants that were available and dry. When the second bell rang and we were still in the bathroom, Alice asked "What is that?" and I said "It's the second bell, it's time for us to leave." And by golly, she pulled it together, fixed the unacceptable pants by rolling them into shorts, complained that they were now too tight, but walked her little four year old self down the hall and into the classroom.



At that point, the teacher spotted us in the chaos of parental goodbyes, and took Alice's hand. We attempted the tried and true kiss and a push, but apparently that was going to work at the new school the way it did at the old. Alice asked when lunch was, and her teacher immediately told her she would show her the schedule and we said goodbye as they walked over to check out the plan for the day.

Tom and I walked into the hall, where I immediately burst into tears. She did it! All her anxiety about shoes and pants, so mind numbingly frustrating and not at all to the point and yet still she had memorized the way to her class and we got through it and she didn't cry. The vice principal offered to call at 10am and I said YES! Please! The report I got was that Alice held her teacher's hand for about 20 minutes, but eventually let go. When the VP went back right before 10am, the teacher gave a double thumbs up. Go Alice!

Mind you, this didn't stop me from spending the entire day at work sniffling about my baby growing up. I went into a meeting at 2pm, and said to my colleague, "I may start crying at 2:55pm cause that's when my baby will get on the bus to go to her afterschool program." I was joking, sort of. And yet, thank goodness they had called with that good report as the next call I got was at 3:15 from Tom saying he was going to school to get her, as the school hadn't put her on the bus for aftercare.

Seriously.

So he went and got her and drove her to aftercare to make sure she got to have the first day routine. When I went to get her, she didn't want to leave right away, but instead finished playing the game with her group.





All in all, I'd say when had an adventurous, and ultimately successful first day.

Yay, Alice!