Ready for school

I have a few Mama jitters as I sit here waiting for Reid’s first morning of school to wrap up. I have no reason to worry – she didn’t so much as look misty-eyed as she waved to me when I left her classroom.
 
I was late getting Reid bathed last night and so she got to bed half an hour late. After all of the prodding it took to get her not to nap, I felt particularly guilty. Reid has been having many dreams lately and last night was no exception. She was even awake for most of the hour between 2 and 3 am. For the most part, she laid quietly but finally she said, “I wish it were tomorrow already.” I told her that I thought that she might be thinking about school and that she should rest up for her big day. Of course with a restless and broken night under her belt, I had to wake Reid up this morning. She was still feeling quiet when Ken called. Reid always wears a smile when she hears Ken’s voice but she doesn’t always talk to him. I decided to give her some tickles from him. It’s the sort of thing that he would do if he were here and it lets him hear her giggles.
 
Reid decided that she and I should eat the same cereal for breakfast from the same colour of bowls and we did, if you consider that I insisted on having the honey-nut variety of Cheerios while she ate plain. Reid has tried honey-nut Cheerios and found them wanting. For the first time in forever, Reid ate her cereal quickly. That’s how excited she was about school. I helped her dress and Aunt Pam tried to document the process for Ken’s benefit. Reid was camera-shy but I think I’ll have some more pictures to upload later. Putting on the blue jumper and white blouse that makes up Reid’s uniform (with other variations) completed Reid’s transformation from preschooler to school girl.  I can’t believe that she is old enough to be in Junior Kindergarten. Or maybe I am not ready for that to be true ;+) We took some photographs on the way out and in front of the house. I will have to dig up the photos of Ken, Reid and I by the house when Reid was just days old for comparison’s sake.
 
Aunt Pam and Grandma Joyce drove us to school and we staged a couple more photos on the way in. Aunt Pam asked Reid to open the door of the school so that I could get a picture of my little girl pulling on the big door. Reid marched over to the automatic door opener, pushed it, and strode confidently through. That’s the difference between her and I, I think. I see her as my baby and she is increasingly finding ways to make her own way in the world. In the classroom, Reid chose an activity table and I joined her. She spoke a bit to the other kids. We saw L, a little girl we’d met on Friday, and they smiled at each other. Later, Le came to play with us and when a couple of other kids started crying, L started to cry, too. I spoke to her until Natalie noticed and then I encouraged Reid to offer L a hand to help her feel better. Reid was speaking to her when I left the room.
 
I’m eager to hear Reid’s stories tonight, if she’ll tell any. She might, though, because she has decided that now that she is in school she must prepare to be an adult. At bedtime last night, Reid told me that she is planning to watch my shows tonight, especially the news. When I asked, she told me that kids in school need to be like big people. I told her that I knew Danielle wasn’t old enough to watch the news yet and, in fact, wasn’t even sure if Suli and Chantelle were old enough. What a lot of responsibility seems to come with Junior Kindergarten! I’ll keep trying to convince Reid that there are many, many steps between JK and adulthood.
 
I spoke a bit with a couple of other parents in the first hour of waiting and then snuck to the library to post pics and write this. I’ll have to keep in touch with at least one lady. The francophones sat together and I am not confident when approaching new people, especially in groups, and particularly groups where I need to speak my second language. But I will.
 
Hope you’re all enjoying your back to school day, even if only in memories.

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