Rilke's 1st Day

This year our baby girl will be going to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Last year she accompanied me every morning as we dropped Harper off at preschool. Every day we would bring Harper inside, say hello to the teachers, hug Harper, and then say goodbye. In the afternoons, when things were less rushed Rilke would wander around Mrs. White's classroom while I collected Harper and his things. I would spend time talking with the teachers and Rilke would make herself at home playing with toys and visiting with the little girls over by the doll house. We fell in love with that preschool which is why I enrolled Rilke in the 3 year old class.





By the time the first day of school arrived Rilke was ready to get to it. She told everyone about her teachers Mrs. Dawson and Mrs. Hennings. She has a friend in her class and other friends across the hall so she's always seeing familiar faces.

As we were getting out of the car in the parking lot Rilke looked up and said "Mom, will you protect me?" I nearly passed out. Although I wanted to promise to protect her every second of every day for the rest of my life, I know she really just needed me to carry her across the parking lot and then hold her hand until she felt ready to be on her own. Josh and I walked her to her class room, smothered her with hugs and kisses and then we watched her wander in and head straight toward a bright yellow pile of play-dough.





When I picked her up a few hours later she was very happy to see me and super excited about her new painting. The more excited Rilke gets the louder and squeakier she gets. I stood there listening as Rilke happily shrieked and shouted her way through the story of her day. Mrs. Dawson confirmed there wasn't a single tear from anyone in the whole class room. I breathed a big sigh of relief and then we headed out for some Maggie Moo ice cream.

Kindergarten day One

Harper's first day of kindergarten was a blur of nervousness and excitement (for me). We practiced getting from the front door to the class room over and over. We practiced his teachers names. We practiced how to open his water bottle. No matter how confident we were that he would like school there was still that nervous voice in the back of my head that worried about him getting lost, overwhelmed, or mistreated.

Josh and I were full of suspense when we picked him up on the afternoon of the first day. He hopped in the car and didn't say much. Finally he let us know that it was "GWATE!" Josh and I both wanted to hurl a million questions at him but we tried our best to pace ourselves.





I told Harper that on every first and last day of school we would go out for ice cream. He picked Ben & Jerry's. As we ate ice cream together as a family we took turns asking questions and tried to figure out how it went. It sounds like it was a day full of information and rules. In Harper's world that equals a perfect day.