"Bye Mom, bye Dad!”

I was searching for a word to sum up today, but I couldn’t find one. In the course of a single day’s events, our daughter now seems at once older, more confident, and more capable, while at the same time still feeling her way through being a “little kid”. This morning began early, with me waking up at 6:15AM and feeling butterflies in MY stomach. It definitely felt like back-to-school! The Comic had already come and paid us a visit before 6AM, so she was ready to go. We woke up the Linguist and to my surprise she woke up readily, and even gave her sister a good morning hug. Clearly, this was going to be a big day.

As we got ready, the Linguist said that today we weren’t practicing getting ready anymore, today we were really going to school! “I can’t wait to go to school!” We got breakfast ready, and I rushed to drop off the Comic at her grandparents so that I could get back home in time to walk with my DW and the Linguist to school. As we left the house I shot some video, and got a few pictures on the front steps. It had rained earlier, and was a little overcast, but not raining. We got to the school a little early, and the Linguist got some hugs outside from two older girls that live two houses down from us.

We walked in, and checked in at the office because we didn’t know what room to go to. Once we found out where to go, we got there and waited outside for the teacher to be ready and open the door to the classroom. If you were to describe the Linguist’s mood, I would say it was thoughtful. There was no apprehension, no fear or nervousness, no clinginess. I poked my head in the door and introduced myself. The teacher came out to the hallway and met the Linguist, and said a few words. Not quite ready yet, so we waited patiently.

She had looked forward to this day for so long, I was concerned that the anticipation would outshine her actual experience, but there was no reason for concern. As the door opened and we walked in, she found her cubby and hung up her jacket, and then went to explore the rest of the room. As we talked with her teacher about allergy action plans, the Linguist made her way to a table with PlayDoh. We called out to her saying goodbye, and she just said, “Bye Mom, bye Dad!” And that was it.

We left, and walked out the doors and back to our house. Wow, our kid is in school. How cool is that?

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Tags: kids, life, school,