The First Day of School

So that last thing you want to see when you pick up your child on the first day of school is your daughter in tears. Why was she crying..did she miss her mommy, was she scared, did she hurt herself....no,no,no...I'll get to that later. So Jeff and I took her this morning and the minute we pulled into the parking lot, Allison was VERY excited. She started screaming and kicking her legs on the car seat. She said "School, I'm going to school!"



It was quite a madhouse of mommies and daddies and 2,3 and 4 year-olds starting out the new school year. We made our way into the school, signed Allison in and proceeded to her classroom. She walked in and immediately spotted a table with peg toys taht she wanted to play with. I told her it was okay to go play and off she went. I handed the teacher the list of items we were supposed to bring on the first day: a change of clothes, an art shirt, a disposable camera, a picture of Allison and a picture of her family. The teacher placed everything in a basket with Allison's name on it. Then it was time to say good-bye. At first Allison ignored us, but then, when she realized we were really leaving, she kinda gave us that look like "You're not staying?" Luckily, one of the teachers noticed this and distracted Allison by focusing her attention on the peg toys. Here's a picture we took of her playing and one of her waiting to enter the classroom:



We said good-bye one more time and out the door we went. Jeff was off to work and I came home with Daniel. He fell asleep on the way home so I actually had a few hours to myself when I got home. I truly didn't know what to do first. So I sat down and read the paper. It was very enjoyable, I must say. The peace and quite was somewhat eerie though, I just wasn't used to that. Daniel woke up around 10:30 and we had some one-on-one time to play. Before I knew it, it was 12:00 and I had to go pick up Allison. The school does a carpool pickup, which means you wait in a line of cars and they bring your child out to you. I was second in line (If you know me, you know I am VERY punctual). So when my turn arrived, I pulled up to the curb, and got out of the car. I saw peaked in the door and saw Allison sitting on the floor crying. The teacher came up to me and said "I just want to warn you, Allison is very upset because she does not have a lunchbox or backpack but other than that she did great." My heart sank. My poor little baby. Not upset because she was scared or missed her mommy, she simply wanted a backpack and lunchbox like some of the other kids had. I will NEVER make that mistake again. I had bought her a princess lunchbox last week for future use but figured she would prefer the hot mac and cheese lunch that the school offered (and the only cold sandwich she will eat is PB&J). Looks like it's going to be PB&J from now on. So I put her in the car and she cried the whole way home. I promised her at least ten times that next time she goes to school, she will have a lunchbox and backpack. So there you have it. Allison's first day of school. Started out well, ended not so well. I had a million questions for her when she came home, but being the three year old that she is, she simply wanted to play with her toys. The only thing I was really able to get out of her about the day was that a boy names Thomas fell off a chair when they were in the computer room. Funny what kids choose to remember.