1st day of Kindergarten

Today Mali went to school for the first time! I'm so proud of her and excited for what your future of education holds! I know she is going to do so great. She has the brain power, desire to learn and social skills to do fantastic! We started getting ready last night. I packed her lunch and showed her where all of her food was in her lunchbox. We also laid out all of her school clothes and picked out her outfit I let her choose whatever she wanted to wear. I would hold up and outfit and ask her "yes", "no", or "maybe" to narrow it down. She chose this beautiful dress that her daddy had picked out when we went school clothes shopping. We tried really hard to get the girls to bed early. This was hard since Eric got home at 7:45 and then had some yard work to do. Mali had some behavior problems and our new routine did not go as well as I wanted it to. Finally, we all sat in Mali's room to read books. Mali and Eleri went to bed at the same time, but Mali started crying. I stayed with her for about 30 minutes while she cried about going to school. She was worried about getting in trouble and was asking me questions like "What if I accidentally lie" and "what if I accidentally don't obey?" I assured her that her teacher is great and would make sure Mali understood. Mali also cried because she was going to miss me. It made my heart so sad, but I also know that she won't miss me for long, and we still get all afternoon together! I prayed with her and tucked her in. I explained to her what we would do in the morning and that I would come wake her up. I set my alarm for 6:50am and Eric was up at 6:40am, at 6:45am I heard something and found Mali on the couch. She proudly told me that "God woke me up". I turned cartoons on for her and cuddled for a little bit with her until I had to get ready. Mali did a great job getting ready this morning. We had no battles or problems. We ate breakfast together and then I watched her get ready. She even brushed her hair and did a great job all by herself. I just sat and watched her in amazement at how grown up she is and how capable she is. After she got ready, we went outside for a little photo shoot. Mali got to watch a few more minutes of cartoons and I got everything ready to go. Our final step was getting the stroller out and going in to wake Eleri up. Eleri was not too happy about that or being put in the stroller without mommy time/diaper change/breakfast. But we made it out the door and walked to school. Walking to school is when it really hit me that the change was happening. We took a few pictures outside and with her teacher. After putting up her lunchbox we went to her locker. Halee Quirk, a little girl we met through Andrea (its her cousin) and whom Mali has played with before took a picture with her, grabbed her hand and said "let's go". I could tell Mali was a little nervous but she was so brave still. I peeked in at her in the classroom and got tears in my eyes! Then the teacher asked if Mali had given me my letter, which she hadn't, so Mali brought it to me. I read the first line "she started school this morning and she seemed so very small...."! This was NOT a letter but absolute heart break. I tried to make it through the doors wondering who could see the tears in my eyes. I got over while waiting in line to get out the door, but once I made it home and read the rest of the "letter" I cried and cried. I can not wait to go pick her up in about ten minutes and hear all about her day. Unfortunately, she probably will not tell me anything. It be so much easier if I just had a live streaming video feed into her classroom and could see all that she was learning and how great she was doing!;)