The Big K - A Week in Review

Well, it's Friday afternoon and our first week in the public school system is behind us. I thought I'd give a little review, and maybe a few laughs.

Monday
Paris woke to her Hello Kitty alarm and was happy to follow our new morning routine. (10 minutes to rest on the couch, 15 minutes to eat breakfast, 15 minutes to get dressed and out the door) She gladly posed for a few pictures. You can see the sass, I mean sparkle in her eyes. She and I load up and head to school. The closer we get to her classroom the tighter her hand gets on mine. We unload her stuff, find her table, and then she realizes I'm leaving. Yes folks, Paris was the cryer in her classroom. I squatted down and comforted her just a bit but remained firm that she would have a great time. As she really started to crank up (there were real tears folks!) Miss Gore caught on and headed over. I kissed Paris on the head, waved at Miss Gore and exchanged that look that said "I know, I need to just leave and she'll be OK" and I left. I made it all the way to the car before I dialed Easy and shed a few tears - mostly I just choked up, no sobbing or anything.

I learned about the car rider line that afternoon. I'm amazed how early I need to be there to be waiting in the actual parking lot and not in the line on the street. Paris hopped in with a smile. She told us (my mom was still here) about her new friend Sarah - who has the "very same" shoes she does! She did say that she did not have fun. Later that evening she explained that she didn't have fun because she "didn't even get to waste any time!" Welcome to life sweet girl.

Tuesday
I got to walk her in to school again because Mom was still here. I took her to the gym where they will meet everyday for assembly to start the day. We found her class, she sat down and never looked back. She looked really tired when I picked her up. She didn't have much to say about school that day...at least not to me. Later that night she told her daddy that she had to "pull her pin." They each start on blue every day and then have to pull their clothes pin and put it on another color should they make a poor choice and not follow the rules. She had to put her pin on yellow because she was hiding under a table and didn't come out when Miss Gore asked her to. She explained that it was because she was supposed to work with a boy that she didn't know and she didn't want to. I think Easy thought she made a good choice to hide from the boy.

Wednesday
This one was tough. My mom left on Tuesday and Tripp had an 8:30 appointment with his speech therapist so I had to start dropping her off at the front of the school. She did a good job and got out of the burb. She gave me a look that was something like "I'm really not sure about this, but you told me I could be a big girl so I'm not going to tell you I'm scared." I saw her look back once to see if I was still there, but I had already moved up through the line of cars. When she didn't see me she just kept going. When I picked her up she announced that she stayed on blue all day. Yea! That night on the way home from church we have this conversation:

Paris: What are we doing tomorrow?
Me: Well, babe, you're going to school.
Paris: But Mommy, I can't go to school on every single day!
Me: You don't have to. There is no school on Saturday or Sunday.
Paris: What about stay-home day? ( a favorite around here!)
Me: Saturday will have to be stay home day for you.
Paris: Is tomorrow Saturday?
Me: No.
Paris: Is the day after that Saturday?
Me: No.
Paris: Is the day after THAT Saturday?
Me: Yes.
Paris: OK. Two days then fun.

Thursday
If Wednesday was tough, Thursday was super tough. She didn't want to get out of the burb. Her eyes clouded up and her bottom lip quivered. She did manage to get out and shut the door, but then the line of cars began to move and she literally had to walk along side the burb as I was driving through. She kept looking in the window at me waving with this look on her face that absolutely ripped my heart to shreds. When we got close enough a Mommy Volunteer saw what was going on and gave me the "It's OK, I'll get her" wave and put her arm around my daughter and walked her in. This was the day that it hit me. IT WAS AWFUL. I missed her. I wanted to be the one making it all better. I called my friend Kara that afternoon and had a good cry. Many other things made this day hard...but that's for another entry.

When she got in the car she told me that she had to pull her pin to orange. That means she made two poor choices. She couldn't "melimber" what the first one was, but the second was talking in line. I know, not a shocker that it involved talking. Here's the story I got:

Paris: My friends kept making me talk in line.
Me: Did they have to pull their pins too?
Paris: No.
Me: Were they talking in line?
Paris: No, they just made me.

I wasn't sure what to say to that so we moved on to another subject. Later that evening she told her daddy that she didn't want her friends to have to pull their pins so she talked so they wouldn't have to. I did explain that starting next week when she has to pull her pin to orange she will loose her computer time for the day.

Friday
Much smoother morning. We were at the front of the line when she had to get out so there was a helper there to open her door and encourage her with a smile. She bounded into the car this afternoon and Miss Gore helped her with a "See you Monday stinker!" I like Miss Gore. Paris stayed on blue all day. When I opened her daily folder I discovered that she was "Queen of the Day" yesterday and all her classmates had drawn pictures of her. They each had written (or at least tried to write) Paris at the top of the page and their own name at the bottom. We had fun looking through it and I got to find out more about the kids in her class while we talked. Did I say I like Miss Gore? I like Miss Gore.


I am shocked at the end of the week at how strong the joy is that wells up inside me when I catch sight of her in the pick up line each day. It's like I'm all of the sudden whole again. I don't really feel incomplete all day while she's gone or anything. But I certainly feel like everything is the way it should be once she's back in the burb with me! We are looking forward to setting no alarms tomorrow and having a "stay home day!"