Dear World

Dear World,

I bequeath to you today one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs. I trust you'll treat her well. She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. Never again will she be completely mine. Prim and proper, she'll wave a young independent hand this morning and say "goodbye", and walk with little lady steps to the schoolhouse. Now, she'll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for sounds of school bells and deadlines, and she'll learn to giggle, and gossip, and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way, and she'll learn to be jealous. Now she'll learn how not to cry. No longer will she have time to sit on the front porch on a hot summer day and watch an ant scurry across a crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn to kiss lilac blossoms in the morning dew. No...now she'll worry about important things like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friend is whose. She'll forget her blocks and dolls, and now she'll find new heroes. For five full years now, I've been her sage and Santa Claus, pal and playmate, Mother and friend. Now she'll learn to share her worship with her teachers, which is only right. But, no longer will I be the smartest, greatest woman in the whole world. Today, when that school bell rings for the first time, she'll learn what it means to be a member of the group, with all its privileges and its disadvantages, too. She'll learn in time that proper ladies do not laugh out loud or kiss dogs or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms, or even watch ants scurry across cracks in the summer sidewalk. Today, she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends, and I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long lonely journey to becoming a woman. So world, I bequeath to you today, one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long, and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs. I trust you will treat her well.

-Author Unknown

You didn't think I was THAT good, did you?   :)

Yep, that's right. I just dropped off my first born child at Kindergarten and I am back home, drinking a cup of coffee and blogging. As I was in her classroom getting ready to leave, I heard a little girl ask her mom, "Mommy, is that happy crying?" Her Mom was having a hard time and this is what the little girl wanted to know. So as I sit in my quiet house and I use quiet quite metaphorically because I have a three year old yelling at Diego on the TV in spanish in the background, I started thinking about that question. Really the answer for me is they are happy and sad tears. 

Happy that MacKenzie is such a delightful and beautiful little girl

Sad that she is growing up WAY too fast

Happy that I know MacKenzie will do so great in school

Sad that I know she will do so great without me

Happy that MacKenzie will be learning so many things over the next years

Sad that someone else will be teaching her those things

Happy that MacKenzie will be making lots of new friends

Sad that I may not even know some of them

Happy that this is a brand new adventure in MacKenzie's life

Sad that someone else will be guiding her through it

Happy that she has reached this milestone in her life

Sad that she has reached this milestone in her life

Happy that MacKenzie was so excited and independent this morning on her way into school

Sad that this is the last time I will ever watch her walk down the hallway with her backpack that is bigger than her on her back, on her very first day of school

Here are some pictures:

"First Day of School" Breakfast - Cinnamon Toast, Banana, & Milk

A "Sissy" that will miss her "Sissy" every day

So excited for the new adventures to come

Backpack...check, Lunckbox...check, Cute New Shoes...check, Cute New Headband...check

Walking to School

I am SO little compared to everyone else

"Ok, Mom is it really necessary to embarrass me on my VERY first day?"

Putting my things away

My very own place, waiting just for me

"Ok, enough...put your camera down."

"Bye Bye Sissy!"