Norah's First Day of Kindergarten

Norah, today was your first day of school!  This marks your first time away from home (not counting time with the grandparents).  You woke early--before I even came in to get you.


You dressed yourself (making good use of your newly acquired shoe tying skill!), and ate cheerios with strawberries for breakfast.  Well, you at least sat at the table with a bowl of cheerios and strawberries...you didn't eat much.

You confided that  you were nervous and "not sure" if you could "do this".  We prayed together, just the two of us, while I held you in my lap in your bedroom floor.  I showed you your packed backpack--where your spare change of clothes were, your water bottle, and Hello Kitty lunch box (fully packed, complete with a 'banana gram").  You listened patiently.  We took LOTS of pictures.  You were patient through that, too.



Daddy, Mommy, and Eli all came to school with you.  We parked up the road from your school, and walked you inside. 

You were excited to see that a new lizard baby had hatched just last night!  We laughed that it was his first day of school, too.  We walked you back to Sr. Mosqueda's room.  (WAY back in the back of the school!)








You walked right in, hung up your backpack, and went to your seat.  Sr. Mosqueda had you start to work, right away, on a picture.  

Mommy shed more than a few tears that morning.  I was so proud of you for being so brave, but sad to be away from you.  Eli was very sad when we got back into the car without you.  Thankfully, we had planned to meet with some friends (including his best buddy, Isaac), so he cheered up after a little while.

When we returned to pick you up in the afternoon, Eli and I waited for you under the trees until your class came out.  Eli kept calling out, "Suzy!  Suzy!"  When I asked him who he was calling, he explained that that was his "secret name" for you.

You were SO happy at the end of the day!  Contrary to what everyone told me to expect, your energy level was high.  You played happily with Eli until Daddy got home from work. The first words out of your mouth were, "All I can say, is today was a GREAT day.  That's all I can say."  Then you proceeded to tell me every, single detail of your day (just like I had hoped you would!) for the next 2 hours.

Things I remember from our conversation:
You LOVED that I wrote a note on your banana...but didn't eat the banana, because you've decided you don't really like bananas (even though I had asked what fruit you wanted in your lunch, and you said, "whatever fruit you want me to have...I like them all!")

Sr. Mosqueda told the class a story about a purple monster with 4 arms, who went to school, but did everything wrong and got into lots of trouble.  Finally, the teacher told him, "That's enough!" and told him he had to leave...but then the monster revealed that he'd never been to school before and didnt' know how to act.  So, the teacher and all the students helped teach him how to behave, and he was good from then on.

You had the "Buenos Dias" song stuck in your head, and sang it all evening.

The best part of your day was "nap time" (much to my shock, coming from the girl who has BEGGED me for "N-O- N-A-P" for the past 6 months)

Your first "new" friend was a girl named Paris.  She sat caddy-corner from your desk.  She has blonde hair.

A little boy named Jeremiah got into "lots of trouble"...and you were sure that he "got an 'N' in conduct" (this after we had threatened you that you'd better always get good conduct grades 'or else')

You didn't remember who you sat with at lunch.  (Literally, you weren't just dodging the question) And Sr. Mosqueda "ate his lunch standing up!"

You went to music with "Mrs. Nice" and computer with Aunt Lynne (who, we've instructed you to call "Mrs. Koenning" or "Mrs. K" while at school)

You didn't play with anyone at recess because you were afraid they would tell you "no" if you asked them if they wanted to play, and  you didn't understand the rules of the games they were playing.  I decided not to worry about this because it was SO evident by your mood that you had a great day, this didn't spoil it (or even seem to bother you, as you explained that you had fun at recess playing on the slide).

You babbled incessantly in non-sensible (Spanish-sounding) garble for much of the afternoon. (Much of which was in the form of self-composed songs)  I later learned that this is normal--just like when  babies babble as they are learning their first language.

We started baths at 7pm, read stories (we started "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" which you were VERY excited about), and turned out the light by 8pm.  I'm pretty sure you were dead to the world within about 3 minutes.