Emerson’s First Day of Kindergarten!

Well praise the Lord, our first kindergarten drop-off went so well this morning! (Thank you to everyone who said a prayer for us today!) We stopped by Growing Room first to drop off Addison. Then we took Emerson so Dunkin for a special donut breakfast with Mommy & Daddy, before putting on her first-day-name-tag, and heading over to hop in the car line.

Before lining up, we parked in a staff spot on the very end so that we could take a couple of family selfies, and get lots of hugs, and then hopped in the car line. We stayed very upbeat and peppy in the car, and talked about how proud we were of her, and about how much fun she was going to have in her big girl school. Then when it was our turn at the front, Jeff let her climb out the front passenger seat (we realized we need to swap the girls’ seats to the opposite sides, for easier entrance/exit), she got her backpack on, and then a teacher helped her find her spot. She walked off all by herself, and didn’t really even turn around to look back! There wasn’t a tear shed while we were all together, but two seconds after she was out of the car, my tears exploded! (I asked her when I picked her up today if she cried at all, and she said she didn’t cry at all!)

We drove around the school to park and head to the “boohoo breakfast” for parents, and then saw the super sweet and sappy Facebook post Megan posted, and I cried even more, and handed my phone to Jeff for him to read. And by the time he handed it back to me, he was crying and wiping his eyes too. And then of course my mom’s post made me cry too!

Okay, so even though we actually dropped off Addison first, I wanted Emerson’s pictures and stories to be first in the post, but let’s back up a little bit, because Baby Sister is apparently feeding herself with a spoon in her new class now already! Gilchrist did a “delayed start” for kindergarten, so we got to GR a little later too, just in time for breakfast. And I was so shocked when they put down her yogurt bowl and handed her a spoon, and and more shocked when she actually did start feeding herself!

And she had such a great day with her little friends, and played peekaboo with her naptime blankie 🙂

Meg called me around 2pm today, and asked me to head downstairs, and had shown up with a special “don’t cry on the first day of school” iced coffee from Lucky Goat! She’s the best sister.

Around 4pm today, Emerson’s new teacher actually emailed us some photos (she did say she’d try to do that occasionally), and I was so surprised and happy to see the photos, and see that Emerson was playing with a new friend!

I didn’t stop thinking about Emerson for even one minute all day today, and was just itching to go back and pick her up from school and get to hear all about it. I was even more antsy today than her first day of daycare five years ago! But when she started daycare, Megan worked as the Assistant Director there, so I felt totally comfortable with her there. Now though, we don’t have someone that close to us who can check on her all the time and give her extra loves, so I think that’s why I was more nervous today, than when she was a tiny baby.

So of course by the time I got to school to finally pick her up this afternoon, I was just dying to give her a big squeeze and hear all about her day! I asked her almost every question I could think of, just so she would keep talking and tell me as much as she could remember, because I was honestly starved for even the tiniest details! She said she played with a couple of friends, and that her teacher was really nice, and that she had a fun day. She said lunch went well, and she loved her sandwich (she wanted to bring her lunch in her lunchbox on the first day of course, but somedays she’ll eat the cafeteria food), and said she ate almost everything we sent her. And once we got in the car and headed to GR, she started chanting “Addie! Addie! Addie!”

Sunday, as we were leaving church and headed to the car, Emerson was already telling us she wanted to go back on Wednesday night for GC Kids. So after a super quick pizza dinner at home, we ran back out to church. (Luckily, it’s only five minutes from our house!) They were doing a special awards night tonight for this past year, before the back-to-school kickoff for the next year. She got to meet her teacher for GC Girls (they split boys & girls up on Wednesday nights), that she’ll be with from now on, and she’s excited about that. And of course she was excited about a free snow cone at the end of the service!

It was a little past our normal bedtime routine by the time we got home, so we got started on that right away, with jammies and books and prayers and devotional and lullabies.

Emerson was SOOO tired. She kept rubbing her eyes, and I just missed the big giant yawn right before I got my camera out. After finishing the routine and getting loves from me and Daddy, she was out in about 30 seconds.

And Addie fought for a couple of minutes, but then she was out really quickly too.

I was so emotional thinking about Emerson all day long, but she really did seem to have a great day! And most importantly, when I asked her if she was excited to to go back again tomorrow, and she cheered “YES!”