Because this was a special day, the whole family took Ava to school. She bounced as she walked up to the doors, her pink Barbie backpack slung across her back, carrying her Scooby Doo lunchbox. I made her stop in front of the school for pictures, after each one she'd say, "Okay, Mom. Let's go inside." I was dreading her walking through those doors and she couldn't get in there fast enough.
Once inside, we sat in the auditorium until they released the kindergarteners to their classrooms. She lined up with her class and made the long walk down the hall to her class, where Ava found her name tag at a seat and sat right down.
At this point, I was expecting her to hesitate a little. I mean, she's never been away from me for very long. But, she didn't. She got to work on the writing sheet at her table and, once again, humored me by posing for pictures.
I looked at the clock: 7:57, which meant it was time for me to go. But how could I. I was about to walk out the doors and leave my little girl for 7.5 hours. Tears welled in my eyes as I gave my best girl a hug and kiss, told her I loved her and reminded her how proud I am of her. When it came time for Andy to say goodbye, I was surprised to see that he too was struggling to keep the tears from falling. Jax, well, Jax was sad to see his best friend go to school. Sunday night, he cried for quite some time. He kept telling us he didn't want Ava to go to school because he would miss her. So, Monday morning, he packed up his backpack and wore it in to Ava's school. I thought he just wanted to be like his big sister. But, when we got into her classroom I realized what he was doing. He was trying to stowaway with Ava. When we put her backpack in her cubby, he placed his in the one next to hers. Then, he commandeered a classmate's seat and worksheet. He was intent on staying at school with Ava. When the time came to actually leave, he handled it pretty well... only attempting to sneak away once.
As for me. Well, to be honest, I was surprised by how quickly the day seemed to pass. Jax and I kept ourselves busy (Eden slept most of the day, as babies do) playing, baking and drawing. But, we were both excited when it came time to pick Ava up.
Jax wrote this ALL BY HIMSELF!! (Obviously, I just told him how to spell the words). He's a good little writer, isn't he?
As expected, Ava came out of school beaming. She loves her teacher and especially enjoyed her music class. She reminded me about 30 times that I needed to check her "take home folder," and couldn't wait to pack her lunch for tomorrow.
So, tomorrow we'll run the whole routine all over again. I'm sure we'll get the hang of things and the mornings will get easier --- now, let's just hope the rest of the day gets easier... for me. I figure if I stop crying by 8:30 tomorrow, it's progress.
