First Day of Kindergarten

Elina had her first day of kindergarten today. The entire day was pretty wonderful for her.

First, she woke up at 7:15am to the sound of her own alarm clock. I'm trying out the alarm clock on her to see if it'll be easier for her to get out of bed. She's a night owl, so these first few mornings are going to be a little hard on her. This morning I saw her get out of bed, turn the alarm clock off, and then crawl back under the covers. I almost intervened, but then she got right out of bed and headed for the bathroom. I thought she did a pretty great job! She brushed her teeth, washed her face, got dressed, made her bed, and came downstairs for breakfast.

When she got downstairs, she saw that the Back-to-School Fairy had brought her a bag filled with goodies. (Because she's such a logical little girl, I know she knows that the fairy is her mom. When I had reminded her about the Back-to-School Fairy a few weeks ago, she said, "Oh, so you just go out and buy stuff and put it in a basket for me, right?" But she was so excited for all the goodies this morning, that she didn't mention it. Maybe she thought it was more polite just to play along. Ahhhh, my little cynic.) She got 3 new books (My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake), 2 sticker books (Fancy Nancy and Super Why), and a princess paper doll book. She also got some yummy, nutritious (and not-so-nutritious) after-school snacks.

Following tradition, she then ate the cereal she picked out at the grocery store. Last year, she was younger and didn't know better so she picked Apple Jacks. This year she went for the gold and got Cookie Crisp. Who doesn't want to eat cookies for breakfast?

Here is Elina reading the little first-day note I left next to her cereal--

We took all our first-day-of-school pictures and then Elina said her goodbyes to J, Eli, and Evie. J had tears in her eyes and cried after we left. (But J is a softie like that.) Eli was sad to see his playmate go, but he found solace in his dinosaurs and trains. On the way to school, I told Elina, "Elina, you're leaving me!" And she said, "But it's not forever, Mommy." What would I do without this logical little girl??

We got to school early so that we could take our time and not rush. We gave each other "kissing hands" just in case we missed each other too much while she was in school. (A "kissing hand" is when you give someone a kiss in their hand, so that person can save it for later in case.) I kinda hung around the doorway when she first got into the classroom. I was definitely sad to see her in there. She saw me through the windows and blew me tons of kisses. I was surprised and got choked up because this is very unlike Elina. She's not lovey like that, so I was glad to see her do that.

J and I had gotten a little worried about Elina when we took her to Open House to meet the teacher, Mrs. V, last Friday. For the entire summer Elina has been SO excited about starting kindergarten. And I know she's ready for it because she gets bored with me sometimes. But when we got to the Open House, she suddenly got quiet and serious. She didn't try to meet any new friends at all. She just played on her own or with Eli. There was a point where Eli and Elina were both sitting in the reading corner reading. She said that there were too many new things, so she was nervous. It brought tears to our eyes to see her so scared. I pointed out all the girls in her class and she still didn't want to go meet them, so she didn't really speak to any kids that day. I asked her about it later and she said that she wanted to meet them on Monday, when I wasn't there because she didn't want me to see her introduce herself. I thought that was so funny, but SO Elina.

Luckily, she came through and today she played with 2 girls from her class. She says she's not going to play with the boys yet, but that she will later on. She said that she had a great day at school. She worked on some contract centers and wrote us a letter in the writing center. It's such a sweet letter...
If you can't read it, it says, "To: Mom, Yaya, and Daddy, Eli. I miss you all and I love you. It's from Elina. I am having fun. You can write me a letter if you want to. From: Elina" This letter is seriously one of the sweetest things she's ever written.

We ended the day with our annual Back-to-School dinner, where Elina chose pan-fried dumplings and cupcakes. Delicious!

We can't wait to watch Elina grow this year. As Elina would say...it's going to be an adventure!