You Did It, Ella. You Did It.

It is 9:50pm on September 2nd. Baby Girl had her first day of Kindergarten. This picture was taken a few minutes ago. She is in our bed. I have my laptop and stuff scattered everywhere because she was so hysterical that I needed to do something to calm her. She wanted to be next to me, the tired out little soul.

Rewind.

I made this lunch last night and have never put more love or thought into a packed lunch in all my life.

She ate every crumb, which surprises me more than anything because she is picky...and slow.

Sleeping was incredibly rough last night. As all good parents do, we had her in bed at a decent hour and she passed out quickly. She was up at 10:30pm yelling like the house was on fire. I tried to calm her in her room. Nope. We all slept in our bed until some blurry hour when Larry stumbled to her bed. She slept holding my hand for several hours. This is not Ella's normal mode, people.

When the alarm buzzed at 6am, this lump wouldn't move. But we got her together enough to head downstairs for breakfast...

We both had this expression because we were both thinking... "Oh boy..."

I handed her my phone to watch old videos we've taken which only lightened her mood for a few moments.

We packed up Panda in his sleeping bag for the nap in her back pack.

She took her Thomas umbrella outside to play in the rain. I was desperate for anything to lighten the mood and didn't care if she went to school half soaked at this point.

Then we headed over to school, about a 2.5 minute ride with traffic. When the seat belt clicked, the wailing began.

"I will carry you as long as you want me to", he says. So probably the only Kindergarten kid to be carried to the front doors of the school was our kid. And it was perfect. 

These make my heart ache a little bit. 

She was trying to be incredibly brave.

 Rufus and his family are relatively new to our neighborhood but we got to hang out with all of them a few times recently. He's cool. His big sis is cool and so are his parents. We were pumped that he was at Ella's table!

You know all those cute pics of kids holding up chalkboards "First Day of Kindergarten" splashed across them in cool handwriting? We've got this folks, and well, this is about as real as it gets.

 

The three of us trying to hold it together!

I know she is going to rock this. She's a smart kid. It is a great school. I know it will get easier. I know it will take Ella months before we hit that 'easier' landmark. That's our girl. Right now, this is our reality.

When I picked her up from school today, she ran to me, jumped in my arms and wept so quietly and hard that she did that hyperventilating hiccup-y crying thing. There we stood at the flag pole wrapped into each other, kids running all around us yelling and laughing. I just rocked her back and forth, wept with her and said, "You did it. You did it."

Ice cream with Panda to wash away tears.

There was a first day of Kindergarten deal made awhile back between Ella and her Papa, as only Papa could do. She was thrilled to have them over tonight so that this could be delivered!

 Our little dragon lover.

A new chapter with new challenges. Ready or not...

~H

PS: Can I just say how stinkin' cute she looked in that uniform?