I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends...

Whew... it's a Friday evening after a long 4th week of a new school year. All I can say is... wow! It seems like every year the list of expectations, duties, and requirements gets bigger and longer and more intense - and this year is definitely no exception! But... on the bright side - I get to take my baby with me to school every day now! Caroline has started kindergarten! She's now a seasoned one-month veteran of big girl school. I have been so very proud of her. That's not to say that we haven't had a few bumps along the road - a few tears, some battles of the two wills, and I admit that this week I had a morning I am not entirely proud of as I completely lost my temper with Caroline's snail-like pace of preparing herself to leave for school in the morning. Overall, though, it's been one of the best times of my life and it makes all the stress of work completely worth it to be with her. I am truly blessed to have a job that allows me to be in the same building with my daughter. I love to sneak past her room and watch her as she is hard at work, go down to the lunchroom and steal some sugar, and help her check out a new library book every day. She is just growing up! Today was "Horrible Hair Day" and we had fun fixing ourselves up this morning. Of course, Caroline, being only the slightest bit vain, changed her mind about the whole hair thing in the car on the way to school ("I did like it, Mommy, but I made up my mind!" Translation: I thought this was a really fun idea, but now I've decided it's not and I've changed my mind) but she still carried on and made it all work. Last night, while we were reading Green Eggs and Ham, she got to the part where the narrator begs to be left alone (LET ME BE!) and she stopped, looked at me, and said, "Mommy, that's what you should do. Just let me be!" This girl is crazy. One day this week, she came to the library and wanted to check out How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the second time. I told her no, that we have 20,000 books in the library and she needs to get a different one. She argued that she loved that book but I did not relent. Mrs. Baker, my parapro, said when Caroline dropped the book in the return basket so she could go make another selection, she was muttering under her breath, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." Crazy, I tell ya, crazy. But I am absolutely loving having her with me. Her teachers, Mrs. Burnette and Mrs. Campbell, are phenomenal, and have done a fabulous job with her. She's made tons of new friends and is eating it up. Have fun, Caroline! Steal the show!! Here are some pictures of the first day of school.

"You learn something every day if you pay attention." ~ Ray LeBond