First Day of School!

Yesterday was Penelope's first day of Kindergarten!  She has been both looking forward to and dreading this day for a long time.  She has a September birthday so she will be one of the oldest in her class and she has been ready to start school for a while now.  But as it got closer she started to get pretty scared.

I tried to make it as fun and exciting as possible for her by helping her pick clothes she really wanted and a lunch with a few of her favorite things in it.  And it really helped.  We even bought special shorts to wear under all her skirts, toured the classroom ahead of time and tested out the playground.  Days before school started she was crying and telling me she didn't want to go, but the morning of she was ready. 

She was totally happy and ready to take pictures and go to school, it was great.  

Right up until I started to leave and then she started crying and begging me to stay.  It was one of the saddest and hardest things I've ever had to do for her so far.  To leave my own child in a room full of strangers while she was crying and pleading for me to stay was extremely difficult.  Good thing Bob was there because after a minute of me not leaving he came back in and told me to go out while he talked to her.  I was able to leave her with him but it was really sad.  He said he was able to calm her down a bit before he left but I think he just said that to make me feel better.

Penelope has always been more cautious and hesitant around people she doesn't know so this was a big and hard step for her.  But I know that if she can make it through the first couple days she will be just fine.

She just looks so cute and grown up to me yet little at the same time.

Here she is in her Class of 2028 shirt.  I'll have her wear it every year on the first day and see how much she grows!

Bob took the morning off to walk her to her first day of school.

She has the same kindergarten teacher Tucker had and we really liked her and were so happy about that.  Here she is moving her owl to the here side of the tree.

And sitting in her seat.  She looks so small to me at that big table.

This was the last picture.  I gave her a hug and told her to have a good day and that is when she started crying.

It is going to take some getting used to her being gone all day.  We already miss her a lot.  Right after we got home Leon started asking "Where Pelpee?"  "Pelpee go Dad?"  He thought maybe she left with Bob who went to work.  Scarlett also especially misses her a lot because they played for hours every day while Leon takes a nap.