Another Milestone

Ally attended her last day of kindergarten today. Yesterday was supposed to be field day, but it was a rainy mess. So today became field day, making the last day of school take place outdoors, with water games and over-excited kids. Ally was not overly impressed with field day, and I think her emotions were bittersweet. She is excited at what the summer holds and the prospect of first grade in a matter of weeks, but she was sad to say goodbye to all of the memories that kindergarten held.

Allyson is such a different person today than she was 9 months ago. Take a look:


And today, on her last day:

And here she is, coming out of school at the end of school the first day... (can you see her? she's right in the middle)...

and today... (again, right in the middle, green skirt)


She was exposed to a whole new world in kindergarten, so much of which I'd like to remove from her brain! But overall, she had a very successful year and is thriving.

I cried went she left this morning. (I know, big shock.) I can't really explain the emotion...David thought I would cry because of the long days ahead of me, trying to entertain her all day! But, no, I was teary because my sweet baby girl is just so big.

Enough about me.

Happy Graduation, sweetie! We are so proud of you!

You're a Kindergarten parent if...

• You get a little lump in your throat on Sunday night, thinking you have to send your child back to school in just a few hours.
• You walk your child to their line-up area every morning, even though they are surely capable of getting to the line on their own.
• You can't imagine the horror of dropping off your child on the street in front of the school, for fear that something could happen between the door of your vehicle and the entrance of the school.
• You're afraid to leave the house during the day just in case the school needs to get a hold of you.
• You freak out at Target when you realize that you've left your cell phone at home..."What if the school is trying to reach me?"
• You freak out when the school actually does call and nearly pack up your sleeping babies in the van to race to your child's rescue before learning it was just a bump on the head.
  
• You watch the clock all day, imagining what your child is doing...lunch, recess, snack, gym, library, art, music, reading, centers, rest...
• You start getting ready to leave for pick-up about 30 minutes before it's necessary.
• You wait, just feet from the exit door, with excitement written all over your face, to see your cherub walk out the door.
• You grin from ear-to-ear when you finally do see your little-one-now-turned-kindergartner; you just can't help it.
• You can hardly wait to rip into the backpack and see what you child accomplished in the 7 hours since you've seen her.
• You grill your little student with countless questions like, "What did you have for lunch?", "Who did you play with at recess?", "Did you learn more letters?", "Did you make any new friends?".
• You fervently hope that your child will answer said questions.
• You ache with this strange sense of loss, even though your child is perfectly healthy, happy, and doing what every 5-year-old does.
• You hear an awful rumor that losing your child to first grade is even more difficult.
• You pray that's just a rumor.
  

Allyson Fox, kindergartner

Life is full of milestones, isn't it?

Today was a big one. I almost titled this post, "Our baby birdie has left the nest," but I know that terminology is supposed to be reserved for when your baby actually leaves home. However, that's how I felt this morning.

The house was quieter, emptier, a little less lively.

But our sweet girl was exactly where she belongs. She was awake and fully dressed by 6:45 and chowed her breakfast just a few moments after it landed on her plate! She was so excited. That helped me deal with the mommy-emotions swirling through my broken heart. She told me I couldn't stay long at school, just long enough to walk her in and say goodbye. Her tummy was nervous, but her smile was huge.

In the end, she had a great day. She surprised me a bit and answered every question I could think of. There were three recesses (huh?), two snacks (seriously?), lunch, rest, gym, music, center time...I'm not being critical (yet), but what time was left for learning? And our picky-eater actually ate a good portion of her lunch (or so she says). (Sorry for the excessive use of parentheses.) (I like parentheses.)

Enjoy the slideshow below and I'll try not to use anymore of those blasted parentheses. (Yeah, right.)