Olivia's 1st day of School

I almost cried. But not for any reason that most parents would understand. Bill and I agreed, it was so wonderful to be seeing our daughter finally be able to do what all the other kids her age are supposed to be doing. Going to school.

As anyone who knows Livi would guess, she was very excited. We have been, for the last couple of weeks working on a schedule that allows for "homework" time. We've decided that official homework or not, Olivia will sit down with me daily, M-F and either read, write a letter or practice math facts. So far we've been reading a lot.

Sunday she decided she wanted to label her clothes for the week. At the time I thought it was a good thing for her to kill some time with. We made a chart where she wrote the days of the school week and then next to the day we drew pictures of what she was going to wear that day. We made sure all the clothes for the week were clean and hung it on her closet door. I LOVE IT! (Tuesday I accidentally laid out her jean shorts instead of her skirt and she about had a conniption fit! It takes the guess work out of the morning routine, which is just what she needed.)

Aaron left for school on the bus and I helped Livi do her hair and finish getting ready. (I liked that she wanted to wear the necklace my mom used to wear.) Fortunately Bill was able to go in to work a little late, so the two of us headed out the door to walk our daughter to school. Bozarth Elementary is a brand new school where construction is still happening on the perimeter. It is less than a 1/2 mile from our house and took us 17 minutes to walk... uphill. (We figured if we could jump the wall we'd shave 7 minutes and a lot of sweat, it's hot!)

Bill was gracious and carried Livi's blue with white polk-a-dots and a bright pink stripe backpack most of the way as I carried the muffins I had made for the parents "Boo-hoo Yahoo Breakfast."(I am able to volunteer my time to be on the PTA board as the communications/PR director. That's a fancy way of saying, I'm in charge of making all the signs and fliers for events.) 

We got to the kindergarten playground and joined the throngs of parents awkwardly watching their children wondering what the school year had in store for their child. Like I mentioned previously, I was just thrilled that she was able to be where she was supposed to be.

Her girlfriend, Natalya Reeve, is in her class. We used to be in the same ward until we split, so it's fun for them to see each other every day.

(Gotta love the PTA shirt)

Olivia's teacher, Ms. Lee, had the kids repeat after her, as they lined up on their dot to go inside after the bell, "I'm going to go inside now. I'll be fine. You'll be fine..." to all the parents. This backfired on my child.

She went from confident in knowing who she is and what she's doing there, to...

...a little girl who was lost in a crowd of kids wondering for the first time, "what do you mean 'I'll be fine. They'll be fine.'? What's not to be fine about? Is there something that's not 'fine' about this situation I've gotten myself into?!?!?!" I actually watched her face fall and her bottom lip start to tremble. I just smiled. She's dealt with worse. I knew she'd figure it all out.

And she did! Her first words to me when I met her outside the classroom door, "I can't wait 'til tomorrow!"