From Soccer Mom to Lunch Lady

Ok, it's not all about me... in fact, it's actually all about Emma's becoming a big kindergartner. She was pretty anxious before her first day, saying she didn't want to go, etc. As we were walking in, she announced she was going to walk in like a big girl. I asked if this meant not holding my hand, and she specified "like a big girl holding your hand." After I took her to the classroom, the bell rang, and I waited outside the door with a few other parents while the kids said the pledge of allegiance and had their very politically correct moment of silence. Emma had this look on her face of "I'm not totally sure about this..." when I waved goodbye. All summer long, I've looked forward to getting my life back, but it didn't surprise me when I went home that morning and cried. Kent and I reminisced about how fast our girl has grown and said a prayer for her. I have a feeling that, as parents, we would do well to make friends with that bittersweet mix of pride and letting go.

She had a good first day. By day 2 or 3 she was pushing me out in the mornings "go, Mom!!" (smiling) and asking how many more days until first grade. One of the side benefits of her being in Miss Robinson's class is sometimes at home she just goes crazy with "yes Ma'am, thank you Ma'am"s, and has discovered what an instant antidote to grow-up grumpiness that can be and how it increases the chances of her getting whatever she wants dramatically.

After experiencing life at a cooperative preschool, where I got so familiar with each classroom, where things were kept and how the teacher liked things done, as well as relating to and disciplining other people's kids and vice versa, I wanted to ward off feelings of being an outsider to this new world of Emma's, so I signed up to volunteer once a month in the school cafeteria as a cashier. Yesterday was my first shift. Emma gave me a big hug and I learned that, according to Highland Park ISD, anyway, tater tots are a vegetable (?!?). So now, I'm even sexier than a soccer mom; I'm a soccer mom AND lunch lady!! (No hair net, thankfully.) It was pretty fun.

Here are some photos from Emma's first week at school, including one with her teacher, Miss Robinson, and one with Emma and her special two-toned jello and home-made white chocolate chip cookies as part of her happy first-day of school dinner. She planned the menu: spaghetti with meatballs and broccoli with cheese sauce and, of course, a special fancy surprise dessert. (Her latest favorite word is flabbergasted. She enjoys the looks of flabbergastery on people's faces when she shows them she knows what it means. My latest favorite word, meanwhile, is flabbergastery.)

Pure, Unadulterated Parental Pride

Emma scored a private lesson w/ her swim teacher, Mr. Hal today since the other two girls didn't show. They had a really good lesson! Hal called me in after it was over & coached Emma in showing off what they'd been working on. She really is confident now in the crawl and easily goes from one side of the pool to the other. They're working on breathing now with that. She can also flip over in the middle of that to her back, do a sort of backstroke on her own and flip back over--its' awesome! AND she can do an amazing push off from the wall. He said she's really learned amazingly quickly this summer, which just confirmed what I'd been thinking, too, given that at the beginning of the summer, it always felt to me like she was within an inch of her life in the water. Anyway, we're now the proud parents of a Giggle Duck (after only 5 wks. of lessons)!!