First Day of School

Today was Rebecca's first day of kindergarten. Jen and I were extremely anxious about this day for a long time. We kept discussing it with Rebecca, and each other - probably a little too much. It had been very hard to imagine our little baby actually going to elementary school...a school where there were 5th graders, and lockers, and a gym, and a cafeteria. It all seemed so grown up.

Thankfully, we live close enough to the school that we are "walkers", so Rebecca didn't have to get on a bus. So Jen and I both walked her (I was home from work because I had taken the whole week off for this event), each of us holding one of her little hands. All the while, I was trying to snap as many pictures as possible to record this day. Then we got to the school (pictured to the right) and headed to the gym. There we met Rebecca's new teacher and all of her new classmates. After a few minutes, the teacher asked the new class to line up so that they could walk in an orderly fashion to their new classroom and away from their parents that were doing their best paparazzi imitations (there were flash bulbs going off every few seconds).

Jen and I really tried to keep it together as the kids lined up and waved good-bye to their parents. Rebecca got into line, right behind a little girl she knows from our block - the only kid she knows in the class - the rest are all strangers to her. She just stood there, waving at us and smiling, with her brand new pink backpack that seemed to be bigger than she is. Yes...she was smiling and waving. What a relief. The only tears were from us, the two sappy parents. Rebecca was totally fine - our brave little girl.