Madi, why are you growing up?

Today was the first day of the rest of my young daughter's life.

Today she barely remembered to kiss me goodbye before running off to play with her friends.

Today she was dressed head to toe in new clothes that make her feel like a pretty princess, including a special bracelet that her boohoo Mom made for her {yes, I'm a boohoo Mom!!!}

Today everything changes.

Today... was Madison's first day of Kindergarten.

We did all the prep work, you know... got new clothes,

new shoes,

goodies to take in her new lunch box and some other random accessories,

and washed up her backpack from pre-school. I also sewed some flowers on it to "make it new" which she loves!

We did the meet and greet the Teacher last night and Madi was too funny.  She had been looking forward to finally meeting her and seeing her classroom for weeks now, but as soon as we got to the school and she saw the playground... it was all over.  Forget why we were there, she was CERTAIN she needed to test out that playground!  We went into her classroom and you could totally tell she was humoring us until she could make a break for those fun toys.  She feigned interest for my benefit for a few minutes and then sweetly asked a few times if she could go outside to play, cute kid.  Clint took her out while I stayed to ask her teacher a few questions and get our info packet.

This morning she was so... chill.  We had purple heart pancakes and juice for breakfast, got ready, did our chores and by 7 only needed to do hair and brush teeth!  I was pretty impressed, honestly!  I had all these great ideas about fun up-dos for her and she would have none of it today.  She wanted it DOWN, but I HAVE to do something with the front so it's not in her eyes...  Hence the braid, it's cute - maybe not as fancy as I had in mind for her first day of school {tomorrow I will triumph!!!  LOL}.  She started to color and I reminded her that she still needed to brush her teeth...  Well, coloring is much more fun than brushing those teeth monsters away, so...  We still had plenty of time so I really didn't push her, but after I was ready to go I reminded her that the sooner we got to school, the longer she would have to play on the playground with the other kids.

"WHAT?!?  How long do I have?"

"About 20 minutes."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SOONER?!?  I NEED TO BRUSH MY TEETH!!  AAAAAAGH!"

Clean, shiny teeth and a few minutes later, we were out in the front yard to take her first day of school pictures.

"MOM!!!  Hurry!  You're wasting my play time!"  Oh, the irony!  Ha ha

We pulled up and I kid you not, she hopped out and made a dash for the playground - looked back once to make sure I was coming and then took off again.  Once she made it to the playground, she was good.  No tears, no tender goodbyes, no hug, no... nothing.  Just, off to play.  She found a friend from church, Lilly, and they ran around giggling.  At one point, they decided to try the teeter-totter.  They waited their turn and then climbed on, with grins spread from ear to ear.  Well, these girls weigh about the same and so the seesaw stayed level.  Evidently neither of them know how it's supposed to work because you could literally see their delighted smiles fade as they wondered why they weren't moving like the other kids.  "This isn't as fun as I thought it was going to be!" "Yeah, let's go play somewhere else!!"  I laughed so hard and made a mental note to teach Madi how to teeter totter proper-like.  :O)

When it was time to come inside, they lined up like ducks behind their teachers and waddled to their classrooms.  I gave Madi one last "Yay!  Good luck!  Love you!!!" and she looked at me like "Oh, yeah!  Hey Mom!!  Forgot you were here!  See ya!"  She walked off, arms folded, determined to be the best behaved kid in her class and never looked back.  Um... ok...?  What just happened?!?  :O)  All jokes aside, I'm so proud of her and so excited that she felt so confident and comfortable that she didn't NEED me to hold her hand and walk her through the morning.  I teared up, but managed to keep my emotions in check; however, I DID have a knot in the pit of my stomach for most of the morning.  LOL

Maelee and I had a great morning together.  We went over her colors and shapes.  She did GREAT and then we played kitchen for a while.  It was a lot of fun and her excitement to have me all to herself was SO cute to see, she was just about glowing!  She kept telling me "I love you, Mom!", DEFINITE silver lining!!!!!

I'll be honest, it drove me crazy to not know what was going on with Madi.  I wanted to call and check on her, but was a good girl and refrained.  She rode the bus home and got off bursting with stories about her day.  They made a pirate eye patch and hat, found a lizard at recess that climbed all over her shirt and then found it's way under her shirt {pervy lizard!!} which made her scream and freak out - her teacher came over and told all the kids that lizards bite {so they won't keep catching them} and held it by the tail as she took it away.  I can totally see the whole scene in my head and it makes me giggle.  Her only 2 complaints of the day were that she had to WAIT to get the string for her pirate eye patch {ha ha}, and that that was the only craft they did today.  I guess if THAT's her list of "not-so-fun", Kindergarten Day 1 can be counted as a success!  She came home with a "caught being good" certificate and said it was because she was such a good listener and obeyed her teacher.

I'm SUPER excited for this new phase.  I'm sad to say goodbye to where we HAVE been, and as much as I don't necessarily WANT Madi to be gone ALL DAY, I know school will be good for her.  I'm looking forward to her having a structured learning schedule Monday-Friday, and for her to have the fun experiences that I can remember enjoying in elementary school.  I'm nervous for her to be exposed to all the crap that's in school, and hope that she knows enough about listening to the Spirit and choosing the right to keep herself safe when I'm not there.

I have my worries and fears, but I also have comfort, confidence and excitement.  Take a deep breath, take it a day at a time and be happy that Madi wants to go back tomorrow!!