Nicology: Milestones

Wow. I sent my baby off to kindergarten today and I have been such a wreck! My mom told me she cried and cried when she sent me to kindergarten, and I am following resolutely in her footsteps. I had to skip the new parent breakfast because there was no way I could talk with other new parents.

We walked her into her classroom, crowded with kids and parents, and hung up her new backpack. She gave us each two hugs and two kisses and then went and sat right next to the teacher. She maintained eye contact with one of us (with a big goofy smile on her face) until the parents had to leave the room. She was wiping her eyes when we left, and of course I was wearing sunglasses to try to maintain a bit of dignity while weeping.

When I picked her up she told me that she and another little girl had been chosen to take a paper to the office and were going to do the same job every morning. She is a teacher's pet already. She told me she had also learned some rules. First, you have to look at the teacher. But, she said, she already learned that in bug camp. Also, you have to stand in a straight line for everything. She thought that was a weird one. So, she seems perfectly pleased with kindergarten, and I am getting my act together.

It has been a summer of major steps. She called me in June while I was at a conference in San Antonio to tell me she had a loose tooth. The audacity of getting her first loose tooth while I was out of town! Fortunately, she waited to lose it until I got home.

Next big step: pierced ears. When Eva called her friend Ali to tell her about losing a tooth, Ali promptly responded that she had gotten her ears pierced. I had just been waiting until she expressed interest, so off we went to pierce her ears.

So there goes my baby with one missing tooth, one loose tooth, two pierced ears and a new backpack into the world of grade school. How did that happen?