#kinleystartskinder

We got to meet Kinley's teacher, Mrs. Richardson, Thursday night before school started.

She is brand new at Kinley's school and precious and I kind of want to be her best friend.

She looks so young at first I thought she was right out of college but, she has been teaching Kinder for 10 years and is around my age and has 3 kids.

 She is so, so sweet and Kinely took to her instantly.

 

All summer when you ask her if she is excited about going to Kindergarten she always said "I am a little excited and a little bit scared."

 She knows herself so well.

We have been reading "The Night before Kindergarten" (a sweet gift from AG) and a few other Kindergarten books for at least a week before school started and the real "night before" we read it and she was a little weepy.

 The nerves had taken full force and all the hype was starting to wear her down.

We all prayed over her for a great day and year and that the nerves would subside and only excitement would prevail in the morning.

I have learned that it is much easier for me to cope with change and transition if I just celebrate it.  So that's what we did for the first morning of Kindergarten.

 I decorated and made a teacher gift (that I totally copied from Kristen) and made her Minnie Mouse pancakes.  I think Ty was more excited than Kinley.

 He kept saying:

"Yay for Kinley!"

 "Yay for Kindergarten!"

"Good job Kinley!"

Through prayer and the celebration we turned that nervousness into excitement and she never uttered another word about being nervous that morning.

The backpack...oh the backpack.

This and school shoes were probably what I went most back and forth about regarding kindergarten prep. We looked on countless websites, in catalogs, and made multiple trips to multiple stores to find the one she wanted. We still finally decided on this one only after I agreed we could personalize it.

  It's a Herschel backpack that we ordered Amazon Prime and it came the day before school started. Her hot pink glitter patch came the first day of school so, this is what it looks like now.

Thank goodness, she loves it.

We took some first day pics at home and at school.

 

I kept getting lots of sweet encouragement texts that morning from family and friends knowing I was taking Kinley and I was trying my best to hold all the emotions back until after I dropped her off. But, Kinley asked if we could all draw hearts on our hands so if we missed each other during the day we could look at it and I lost it.

I cried the whole way to school.

 I got it together to actually walk her in.

We all went with her and hugged and kissed and said goodbye and then she never looked back.

She loved hanging her backpack on her own personalized hook and she started her activity at her table and was ready for us to go. She was so excited and she did not hesitate for a second.

 

I don't know who was more excited to pick her up...me or Ty.

As much as it affects me that Kinley is gone 5 days a week now, I think he is the most affected. He really misses her. They are best friends and are laughing, playing, sleeping, even just sitting together 24 hours a day. It will be good when he starts school and at least 3 days he will be busy and not missing her.

Overall, it was a big success.
When I asked her about her first day, she said she loved it and the hype of sending her off is over now.

But, I have to admit,

I got home with Ben and Ty after dropping her off and immediately went into her room to clean it up and make her bed and had another good cry.

 I can't even explain it.

 It is NOT sad at all.

I am SO, SO excited for her.

It is just a monumental moment for that one morning.

A milestone that seems so far away when they are babies but comes so, so quickly.

I am about to hold and rock and nurse a new baby and that was Kinley just a blink of an eye ago.

Everyone says it,

it is nothing new,

nothing you haven't heard before but it is just surreal when it happens.

My first baby is not a baby at all anymore.

It has been a couple days now and we did our first school project, just a banner for the teacher to hang on the wall about Kinley.

And though I think each day gets easier and more fun for Kinley, I do think day 4, her first FULL day of Kinder, was the hardest on me so far.
The first three days were half days and I got to walk her to her classroom and hand her off to her teacher personally and still have lunch with her.
But, the first full day, when I wasn't allowed to walk her in the classroom anymore, and I had to drop her off and watch her get out of the car herself, grab her backpack, close the door and walk away into the building was another moment all together.

I just sat there in my car with the others behind me watching her walk as far as I could until I made sure she walked in the right door.
She looked so little with that big backpack and I could barely see her through the tears, but I couldn't move
or drive away.
It was the toughest so far.
When I picked her up, I peppered her with too many questions about
how was it walking to her class by herself?
Did she go to PE?
Was she wearing the right shoes?
Did she like eating lunch in the cafeteria?
Who did she sit by?
Did she get the note I wrote her?

I remember my mom always loving to pick us kids up so she could have us and our undivided attention in the car even for a few minutes to ask us questions about the day while it was fresh on our mind.
And I love it too.
I don't want to miss a second of it.

 I thank God for the blessing of these moments with my kids and pray we get more and more and I don't take one for granted because it so sweet.
I pray she is prepared for the challenges of school but, mostly that she is just sweet and obedient and loving and a good friend.
I pray that through the challenges and new experiences she faces, she has the security to know that God loves her and is with her, even when Ben and I are not.
I pray that she rests securely that we will always be there for her to pick her up and listen and ask question after question, because we love her and care so much about every detail of her life...the way God cares about us all.

I love you Kinley Gay.

You made me a mommy and I am so proud of you and so, so thankful God blessed me with you.