She left as a kid and came home a kindergartner

I can't believe my baby is in kindergarten! This was such an emotional day...just like everyone says. But I thought we were going to have it easy because we have the most independent, least shy girl I know. She woke up excited and seemed great the whole ride to school and even as we walked in the school. But, when we arrived in Mr. Orr's class, the devastation ensued. I think part of the problem is that there was a precious little girl sitting at the front of the class, absolutely hysterical screaming, "I want my mommy & daddy." She was hyperventilating. Poor thing, I just wanted to go rescue the little girl. The other thing is that Alex is used to 7 classmates. I tried to count and it was somewhere between 21-23 students. I have to admit, it was really intimidating. I looked down and Alex gripped on to me for dear life and lost it. "Take me home, Mommy. Please, take me home. I don't like this at all." I tried comforting her, I tried threatening her...no avail. Eventually, I had to get Mr. Orr to come over so I could walk away. My heart was breaking. I had to walk away hearing my child screaming bloody murder. Awesome.

It was a tough day for me. I couldn't stop thinking about her...I was worrying about her (like moms do). I just kept praying that pick-up would be better. Thank goodness it was! She said she had an amazing day and loved it sooo much and can't wait to go back tomorrow. She asked me to ride in my car home so she could take the bus tomorrow :)

I had tears in my eyes and she asked my why I was crying and I told her I was just so worried she was sad all day. She looked at me and said, "Yeah, I cried at first because I missed you but my teacher calmed me down. Don't cry tomorrow because I'll be having fun." She made a lot of friends and really seemed to enjoy all of it.
What a relief! Pit in stomach gone...well, almost.

Here are some pics of our kindergartner:

One note: the heart on her hand is a fun tradition we started today. I drew a heart on my hand too so anytime we missed each other, we could look at our heart and think of each other. By the time I picked her up, mine was faded from tears and hers was faded from fun.