Firsts...

My baby girl started first grade last week... sigh.  It was a day of many firsts for us... last year she attended a school that I absolutely loved and could have and would have been the only thing that kept me from moving.  It's a charter school and while still considered a public school, the kids all wore uniforms, there was no busing system or in house lunches & breakfast options.

I had hoped to be settled closer t work before school started but it was crazy to think that would happen so quickly... I barely had time to prepare for the initial move north, let alone find a place too!  So for the moment we are with family and making it work... bouncing her from school to school isn't what I wanted to do but she won't be the first to do it, right?  Other kids have survived starting at multiple new schools during their child hood, right?  She'll be ok... right?

So the day quickly came upon us and it was time... the FIRST day of the FIRST grade and her FIRST experience in riding a bus to and from school, and don't forget her FIRST time with the option to either take her luch to school or to buy it there.  I think I was more scared than her... having been a shy child I know it can be scarey doing something new for the FIRST time.  The bus came, she timidly got on and away she went... my baby girl, growing up and learning indpendence.  As the tears filled my eyes I prayed I'd taught her enough and covered all the scenarios of what to do in a "what if" situation... and with that, I was in my car headed for the school to make sure she made it safely.

I'm sure I looked like some kind of child creeper... I sat in my car, waiting and watching, waiting and watching... wondering what was taking so long... and then the buses all started pulling in.  Her bus pulled in and of course I couldn't see it so I scurrying out of the car and "snuck" up into the school yard and hid behind a tree, watching and waiting once again for her to appear from the big yellow bus... being careful that she didn't see me.  Off she came, just a trucking along and keeping up with the other kids and heading into school - my very own, Ms. Independent.

The traditional first day, in front of the door picture...