Second Grade

We are off to school
Our Cubby where we keep our lunch bags and book bags

This is our class. A Class full of Crabs!

Our new teacher Ms. Price. Please take care of our baby!

After a long day we are ready to go home. Notice the gap in the teeth where we lost a tooth the night before. How is it that our teeth always fall out right before school starts?

Seven and a half years ago I left for the hospital not knowing how very much my life was about to change. I knew I was going to be a mother, have new responsibilities, be exhausted from late night feedings.... but I was still completely clueless as to what was about to happen. When I took the first look at that baby girl I knew things were going to be different. They don't tell you just how much this little being is going to affect you. I don't mean physically or financially, although we all know they certainly do,I mean mentally and emotionally. I had no idea that my life had been so unfulfilled until I had her. It was at that moment that I knew what true love felt like. Don't get me wrong I love my husband, but there is something so incredibly different about a mothers love for a child. I would spend the next four years day in and day out with my Emily. That is the gift of being a stay at home mother. You are blessed with the time and the chance to bond with your child. We had our second child right before Emily turned four and I no longer had Emily all to myself and she no longer had mommy. Andrew made life richer and we felt complete as a family( or so we thought) and Emily was so loving and caring for her new baby, she was the perfect big sister. That is right Big sister. It was then that she ceased to be my baby and I was forced to realize that she was growing up. It had happened in a split second. I went to the hospital to have a baby and in walked this grown up little girl. How could this have happened. I had no idea that once this growing up thing starts it doesn't stop, Not only does it not stop it keeps going by faster. I blinked my eyes and there I was standing outside a school getting ready to leave my baby there all by herself. Was I mad? Had I lost my mind ? You see it is EXTREMELY rare that I leave my kids with anyone. I was going to leave her with a complete stranger for a whole day and she didn't even care. I was the one crying in the hallway. I was scared, not my daughter. I guess she had a better grip on the situation than I did. I became the big girl that day I left Emily there at school with her teacher. Do you know what happened? She survived. She was so fortunate- no make that we were so fortunate- to have the best teacher on the planet. Ms. Dell, she is God's gift to parents of kindergartners. Emily worshipped the ground she walked on, as did all the kids in her class. At the end of the year there were tears but we knew we were moving forward, there were great things ahead of us. We would be moving on to first grade which was scary, but we would still have Ms. Dell looking out for us. She was right down the hall- we could say hello everyday. The transition was a little rocky at first, but we emerged at the end of the year- now a rising second grader. We could add, subtract, do story problems, and read entire books. We had made it through another year this time with the help of two teachers Ms. Woosley and Ms. Gutshall. How had we been so lucky to have had such wonderful helpers on this journey that our little girl was on. At the end of second grade we found out that our road had encountered a little detour. We were to be reassigned to another school and would be leaving behind our lovely school and all the wonderful souls that filled it each day. We were happy to learn that Emily would be joined by six classmates from her first grade class. Six!! Plus there were several other students from other classes at her old school that she was acquainted with. To top it off her P.E. teacher and one of her library teachers were joining the staff of the new school. Things were looking up!! We were able to see the new school on June 25th. It is a beautiful school with brightly painted hallways. I guess with our disappointment at the reassignment we expected the school to be dreadful . We were actually surprised at how pretty it was. Emily's hallway is painted a bright green. The only bad thing we could find is that the parking lot is way too small. This school might not be half bad after all. On July 7th I dropped Emily off for her first day of second grade. I didn't even cry( until I got to the car) .It was extremely hectic in the school, which was a good thing as I surely would have made an idiot out of myself blubbering. Emily's new teacher Ms. Price seems really sweet and Emily seems to really like her. Emily has completed her first week of second grade and both she and I have survived. This is the only time of the year that I don't like the year round schedule. It seems like she should have more time off in the summer. Maybe I am just selfish. Maybe I am just greedy. Maybe I just don't want to see my little girl grow up.