Elle's First Day of Kindergarten

Elle had her first day of Kindergarten, and she loved—maybe really liked is a better description—it. I was pretty confident that she would go and be fine, and thankfully she did. There were plenty of children crying on the first day, but I was glad to FINALLY have my daughter not be one of them (she used to be glued to my hip). She happily found her seat, met the two girls sitting next to her, and proceeded to color a picture as she waited for school to start. I took a few pictures and told her goodbye. She did not even protest or hesitate—she just smiled and waved goodbye.

I really was happy that she did so well; but on the way home, I had tears in my eyes, and Hudson kept pointing to her booster and saying her name (he doesn’t really understand why we leave her everyday). It is very bittersweet letting her go to school everyday. On the one hand, I know she is ready and she likes it. But on the other hand, I want her to stay home with me and be my happy, sweet little girl forever. But with Hudson having a nap, and Elle being at school, I get a nice little break. I do rather enjoy that.



But the morning of her first day of school was a little hectic. Elle insisted the night before that she wanted to sleep in rags to make her hair curly. I tried to explain to her that she already has curly hair, and that trying a new hairdo under time constraints is never a good idea. But, like usual, my advice went unheeded, and I ended up tying her hair in rags the night before. Sure enough, when we took the rags out of her hair, it was super curly and frizzy. It looked horrible. Even Elle looked in the mirror and said, “I look ugly. I look like a boy.” Since brushing it did nothing but make it worse, I dowsed her hair in water, brushed it and slipped a headband on. Nothing like the I-just-got-out-of-the-shower look on the first day. And to top it all off, she insisted on wearing her ratty old unicorn shirt. I tried every which way to get her to wear one of her nice, new outfits, but since she is stubborn like her father (okay, maybe me), she got to wear the I-wore-this-shirt-almost-everyday-to-preschool shirt. It was a great first day look. But she was happy and all smiles, and that is all that matters.

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And of course, we had apple cupcakes and apple juice after school. We cannot start a new school year without apple cupcakes. They are something that Elle looks forward to, and something I am glad I only have to make once a year—especially because the store was out of green airheads and tootsie rolls, so I had to make white chocolate leaves and dip our homemade caramel in dark chocolate for the stems (it was a lot of work; that nice little break was not much of a break). But they turned out great and Elle was happy.



I think Elle’s first day of Kindergarten was a success. She went, she likes it and she’s ready for more (as long as she doesn’t sleep in anymore rags).