Kinder-schmoog

For the past few months, uttering the words kindergarten, school and teacher (along with any form of those words or anything that might make one think of those words) has been prohibited. Cate's rule. We made up the word schmooga-schmoog instead. I might have mentioned that before. 

She started to let us say kinder-schmoog though. I was hopeful that it was a step in the right direction. Maybe it meant she was going to be ok when school started.

She wasn't.

This was the happiest of all the pictures I took of her on her first day of kindergarten. Several of the others had scowls and tears. 

Drop off was sad. It was rainy so instead of letting her wait in the courtyard with the other kids, we were allowed to sit in the hall next to her classroom door. She squeezed my arm and cried the whole 5 minutes we were there. Sobbing crying. Not very quietly. We were a pathetic sight. I felt so badly for her.

Finally it was time to go in. She asked me if I would stay for a while in the hall and then peek in the door to see if she was ok. But to only peek with my eyes and not let anyone see my nose. I didn't do it but I sure wanted to.

I planned to take Ray Ray home then (he had been playing with Cate all morning before school) and enjoy my first day of freedom but he wanted to be with me more than he wanted to be with his mom. I had planned to go to Costco so I just brought him with me (because I'm his favorite aunt and probably should be his mom's favorite sister for obvious reasons).

I told Ray Ray that there would be nobody to play with at my house after the store but he didn't care. He said he'd just play in Cate's room with her toys until she got home. He played in Danny's instead with the Legos. I think he knows that's a total no-no when Danny is home so he took full advantage of the situation.

When school was over Cate came running to me, gave me a big hug and told me she loves kindergarten. Hallelujah! I knew she would. She just needed to get past that scary part of the unknown. She wanted to stop by Grama Bama's house so we did. They chit chatted and had a nice visit.

Then we came home to get ready for Danny's soccer game and this happened when I wasn't looking:

5:00 naps are the best aren't they? Nope. Lucky for us Grandpa was happy to come sit at my house with the little sleeping beauty so I could take Danny to his game. She would have been a beast to wake up. I could still hear her awake in her room at 11:00 when I went to bed. Oh joy.

The good news is that as we kissed her good night she told us that it was the best day of her life. Those were some good words to hear.

And then there was today. The second day of school.

She cried again. I really hate the crying. It makes me feel like such a crappy mom to leave her like that. Of course she was happy when I came to pick her up. I told her I'm proud of her and she's very brave but maybe we don't need anymore crying tomorrow. 

She said she'll just cry for 6 more days and then be done.

But she wouldn't pinky promise about it so we'll have to wait and see.