Wishing Flowers

My daughter came rushing in the other day all excited. When I got her settled down a little bit, I was able to understand what she was saying. She was excited because our yard was filled with 'wishing flowers.'

I looked out and I saw what she was talking about ...

When I saw it, I have to admit that my first thought was of all of the dandelions we were going to have because of these. But, her excitement soon won me over.

As she blew the dandelion seeds into the air, I hoped she'd never lose that innocence ... but sadly knew some day she would.

What do you see ... wishing flowers or dandelions?

Goodbye, Baby Girl; Hello, Big Girl

Well, it happened. The first day of big-girl school is finally here. The day I’ve been dreading. The day my baby girl becomes a big girl.

It started the way I remember my school days starting … with the parent getting frustrated with the child for not getting up. There are times when it is completely obvious that my daughter really is MY daughter. This was one of those times. I remember my dad even going so far as to pour water on me to get me out of bed when I was older. It is obvious that neither of us are morning people at all.

But, she finally got up and after 10min of lying on the couch, she got dressed by herself. I brushed her hair and put a school ribbon on it (the cult requires their ribbon be used if one is present). Then she looked at herself in the mirror. When she came out, I said “Oh, don’t you look cute!” She gave me a look that I have felt myself give people many times and shook her head no. I asked “You look like a big girl. Do you like it?” She shook her head yes (oh, how I long for rocks in the head to rattle when the head shakes). All of a sudden it hit me. “Are you saying you’re not cute, you’re a big girl?” “Unh-hunh.” *SOB* I had to give her a hug so she wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes.

Then it was breakfast. She wanted French toast but I didn’t have any frozen stuff and I wasn’t sure we’d have time for me to make it. I convinced her to have Eggs a la Momma (eggs scrambled with cheese and milk) instead. She ate like a champ, brushed her teeth and we were off.

Oops, we have to take the umbrellas because it’s raining cats and dogs. Oh, wait, stop at the top of the stairs, honey. Mommy needs to take a picture. Snap the shot in the rain. NOW we’re off.

I had to make a couple of stops before we got to school. We ran to Walgreens to buy the 5mg tablets of Zyrtec so the school wouldn’t have to break them if there was an allergic reaction on their watch. Then we stopped at my office to make copies of all of the forms from school. I learned my lesson with her daycare about making copies of the forms. Never assume the school is going to actually file what they need in the right place … or at all.

On our way to school, I give the Mommy Lecture. Be good. Listen to your teacher. If you need help, ask.

We get to school and run in. I’ve got 5 minutes until school starts but, wait, does Kindergarten start early? I don’t know so I give her a quick hug and kiss in the hall. “Love you.” “Love you.” When we get to her room, all of the kids are seated in their chairs already. Whew! At least there won’t be a crying scene from either of us. She won’t be happy that I didn’t say goodbye again since she’s very much into saying goodbye and I Love you but it’s for the best today. I am not happy that I didn’t get to hear ‘I love you, mommy’ that one last time but, again, it’s for the best today.

I push her in and run to the office to give them her allergy medicine and the giant stack of paperwork. As I’m talking with the lady in the office about her allergies, Faith’s cousin walks by and rubs my back. I give her the ‘wait’ finger and finish talking to the office lady. I turn around and she’s got tears in her eyes from leaving her little boy in Kindergarten. He apparently told her he’d miss her and it just got her. Seeing her made me very sad because I hadn’t let myself think about it or feel it for fear of exposing too much and making my daughter upset. I got teary. On the way to work, I cried a little thinking about how she was a big kid now and how I had just another 13yrs before she’d be out on her own. 13yrs. It seems like so much and, yet, so little all at the same time.

It’s amazing how little it takes to knock down that wall mothers build so the kids won’t see how much we are going to miss them during the day and how much we are going to miss the little kids they will never be again.

Endings and Beginnings

So, I have this whole post about cheese, Cheeseland and Cheesehead ready to go except that I stopped to find a picture of cheese and never got back to it. I thought it would be appropriate for my first post on this blog considering the name but it will have to wait. I have a major life event going on in my household right now.

As of today, my daughter is done with daycare. We have had the good fortune of being able to keep our daughter in the same daycare she started at when she was 8 weeks old. This has not been without its ups and downs. God knows there were times I wanted to yank her out of there as quickly as I could but I stuck with it because she loved it there and that's where her friends are.

So, because of this, she has been dreading today. She would get upset and cry about it last month. To help her through the last day, I told her we would have a pool party the day after she was done but the weather isn't cooperating and it's only going to be a high of 74 tomorrow which is not nearly warm enough to go swimming. I needed another plan.

Last night, she and I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of party favors, some brown paper lunch bags, and some stickers. She decorated the lunch bags with the stickers and I filled them with those odd little toys the kids get at parties and some candies ... Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Roll Pops, and the best, all-sugar candy of all time Pixie Sticks. I threw in a pencil and pencil sharpener for good measure. We also picked up a cake for the class. This way, hopefully, she will learn that the ending of something is not necessarily the end of everything and should be celebrated as an opportunity for a beginning. She won't get the concept of it at Age 5 but hopefully the idea will sink in a little bit.

Her crying about leaving daycare has kind of tapered off this month which may be due, in part, to the building excitement about the next step in her education ... KINDERGARTEN. We go to Kindergarten Orientation on Tuesday for an hour and her first full day of kindergarten will be Thursday. She'll be going to school with two of her cousins and this helps ease some of the anxiety about changing schools. We've been picking up her uniform pieces for her move into big kiddom and she's thrilled that she will be able to wear dresses most of the time. I have told her that as long as her uniform doesn't get stained, I will let her wear it as much as possible. If the two jumpers I've bought get stained, she will need to wear pants. Hopefully that will cause her to be a bit more careful.

My hubby just emailed and said he got a little choked up when the kid said goodbye to the teacher that sits by the front door in the morning to collect the children from the parents as they rush to their jobs. Marina was the first teacher we saw the first day we brought the kid to daycare. (The picture is from the end of our first day at daycare and back at work.) She followed us into the Infant Room and told us that she would take the baby. She looked like any other parent that might be walking into the daycare. She wasn't the teacher we'd been told would be taking the baby from us and I had never met her before. I looked at her and said "I'm sure you can but, unfortunately, I don't know who you are and I'm not just handing over my child to you. I'm sure you understand." Things have changed since then (there are only 3 of the staff there now that were there when the kid first arrived) and she is a very trusted adult. She has to be to take responsibility for our child, right?

I'm so glad that hubby takes the kid to daycare. I would have been crying when the kid said goodbye to Marina. My baby isn't a baby anymore ... :(