Last Monday was Ella's first day of school and perhaps I haven't quite recovered from it in order to post. Nah, I'm just teasing, but I think it was such a momentous occasion that I would earn Bad Mother of the Year title if I didn't post about it here.
The obligatory FDoS pictures on the front porch. Watch as the frustration sets in...
Yay! Standard shot on the front porch! Don't ask me what's on our door. I have no idea.
Now with the book bag over your shoulder, honey!
Um, yes, the blue beads went to kindergarten.
An over the shoulder look, trying to capture the essence of the book bag.
Fine. I'm done.
There it is! The book bag is from Mercy Regional Health Center, a gift from the hospital when she was born. WHO IS A CHEAPSKATE? That'd be us. I wonder if her teachers feel sorry for her, having to carry a hospital book bag instead of a princess one like all of the other girls. Yeah, that's what I thought.
She had (and has had) a really good experience at school. On the first day I was walking her to her classroom and may have gotten a bit caught up in all of the buzz and what seemed like trillions of little children milling about everywhere. I was instantly taken back a few decades to walking the halls of my elementary school, mentally checking off where the lunchroom was, which hall my classroom was on, and the way out to the buses. I looked at her with my eyes all ablaze and said 'Look, Ella, at all of these kids! There are so many new friends here!' To which she replied, in a very exasperated tone, 'Mama, I'm not as excited as you are!' And so it begins.
Once I sat through one hundred and eleven hours of car rider waiting, I pumped Ella for all the information she could give me after the first day. Bologna sandwiches for lunch, some kids were naughty, she was nice, and she didn't take a nap. A boy near her during nap time tried to tell her to go to sleep, but she didn't pay attention to him because 'He's not the boss of me.' Exactly, little girl, exactly. (As your daddy will explain to you in great detail in a few years, boys are dumb and you never, ever, EVER do what they tell you to. Ever.)
Now that a week has passed, we have moved on to the homework stage of
kindergarten. Who knew?! One assignment was to review the letters of the alphabet and match little cards with the letters on them to their place on a chart. Easy, peasey, mac and cheesey if you're Ella Grace. Therefore, the obvious thing to do when Ella can already do the homework assignment is for her to act as the teacher and make Mama do the assignment. Obviously! I have tried and tried to tell her that I do, in fact, know my letters, but that doesn't matter. I think the drive to be the boss and play teacher is too overwhelming, and there I sit, matching letters to charts and calling out their names during an exciting round of flash cards. When will Ashley Kate be old enough to sit through this in my place? Or where in the world is her father?
Speaking of Ella Grace's father, he's not too keen on the latest chant that she has brought home from kindergarten. 'Missed me! Missed me! Now you've got to kiss me!' Oooooh noooo ho ho, little one, don't go repeating that at our house! David is not a fan of Ella telling people they have to kiss her. Even if it is an irrational and unfounded fear. That doesn't matter.
There might be boys who take her seriously and then where would we be?! In trouble, that's where. Which is exactly where I found myself after making an innocent comment about the potential cuteness of a new friend who is a boy. I remarked that new friend Lance was at open house when we were and oh, by the way, as I recall he was kind of cute. Swiftly, from the back seat, I was told 'We don't say things like that at school.' Case closed. David was rather pleased to hear about this conversation, to say the least.
Overall, school seems to be fitting well with Ella. I figured that it would, since she is definitely 'a rules girl' (to quote Andria about her daughter Dellaina). She thrives on being good and doing all of her homework on the night that it is assigned. She is empathetic to the children in her class that aren't as prepared for kindergarten as she is, and has commented about how she will help them learn. 'It's not their fault that they don't know... they just haven't been taught yet.' Awww... so sweet!
(Again, don't ask me what's on our door. I don't know. It was there when we moved in.)
