A tale of Kindergarten

Well, folks. Allison is officially a kindergartner!
This has been an...interesting week.
Allie was thrilled about her first day - excited and looking forward to it.

Day one, I walked her into school.. Daddy and Emily wanted to as well, but the parking lot was so crowded, that me and Allie had to jump out of the car. When we walked into school, I felt Allie's hand tighten around mine. I could tell she was overwhelmed with how crowded it was - filled shoulder to shoulder with parents and kids, also walking their child into the classroom on this first day.

When we got to her class, and to her seat, she opened her pencil box that was already laid out for her, and she found her crayons, and only the cap to her scissors - without the scissors themselves. Allie looked up at me, with tears welling in her eyes, saying, somebody stole my scissors. I asked the teacher and the teacher explained that she has all of the scissors, just left the caps in the box. So, Allie was ok with that. I hugged her goodbye... and walked out.

It felt empty in the house that day. Allie's absence was truly felt. I missed her and so did Emily. At pick-up, Emily and I walked up to Allie where she was sitting with her class, and I stood in front of her for a full 5-10 seconds before she even registered that it was me. When she did, she grabbed onto me, hugged me hard, and just burst into tears. It was all I could do to not break down myself.

As the day went on, I understood that the tears were just tears of being overwhelmed and relieved to see me. Later on that night, as Allie was helping me with chores, she told me all about her day. The rules of the classroom, fun things they did, songs they sang, kids she met, etc...

She said to me, "Mom, I have the best kindergarten in the history of kindergartens." and she added, "but I just cried cause I missed you all day."

Oh honey, I missed you too.