Tomorrow you'll go to Kindergarten. We'll wake up early and put on your uniform (which I'm still not a fan of) and new tennis shoes and hair clips (since your DIY haircut hasn't grown out) and you'll pose with a sign Bubbie made you and pack you up with a unicorn backpack that's as big as you are and head to big school. You're going to Kindergarten at the same school where I went to Kindergarten through 6th grade. You think this is super cool. I think this is basically unimaginable.
Seven years ago tomorrow your Bubbie moved to Columbus. Who would have imagined that seven years later we would be sending our daughter to Kindergarten at Clubview? I wouldn't have believed it!
You are mostly excited about school.(Although recently you told me you didn't need to learn how to read since everyone else can read and can tell you what things say.) Tonight we went for a meeting and to see your classroom. You were so excited to see lots of your friends from pre-K and your soccer team.
Kindergarten is going to teach you a lot. I am so excited about this year and all we have to learn together.
I hope you'll be a good friend and have a good friend. Look for the kids who are left out and be kind.
I hope you learn what it feels like to be proud of something you work really hard on.
I hope you laugh at yourself and tell more jokes but not at the expense of other people.
I hope you'll be patient with kids who learn differently than you do. I also hope you'll be patient with yourself.
I hope you learn that learning new things isn't always easy but it can be really, really fun.
I hope you will stay excited about eating school lunches so we don't have to pack a lunchbox every night. Your great-grandmother Mimi would love this. I hope you can open your milk by yourself and that you have one thing on your tray everyday that you love. I also .hope we don't forget to send lunch money.
I hope your school is a safe place for you to learn and play.
I hope you know what a treat it is to be able to go to your grandparents' house after school everyday. MaeMae and Steve are a tremendous part of the village and don't get enough credit for all they do.
I hope that your eyes don't get stuck when you roll them and that your teacher can match your sass.
I hope that you like playing on the playground with other boys and girls. You've spent a lot of time on that playground with Steve and this will be different.
I hope you respect your teachers and use all the good manners you can muster.
I hope you'll talk to me about what you're doing and learning and feeling at school.
I hope you don't lose your pencil pouch I made you.
I hope you learn more about letters and numbers but not how to spell everything quite yet so Bubbie and I can still spell I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M and you'll be none the wiser.
I hope when you learn more about how unique our family is, it makes you proud to be a part of it.
I asked what you were happy about after the meeting tonight and you said "I am glad I didn't toot in there." So I hope you don't toot at inopportune times.
So many hopes.
More than anything else I hope you always choose kindness. Always. With others. With yourself. Choose kindness.
This is going to be a crazy year for our family, Sam. Hopefully you'll be none the wiser but I've made changes with my work that mean I'm working again in the afternoons and some evenings. Bubbie is finishing her degree this year and her schedule will be all over the place. We're depending on help from lots of folks to make this work. This isn't a perfect world and things are not exactly as I would have hoped they would be. I wish we had had more time this summer for vacation and memory making. I wish I was able to be home every afternoon with you and feed you made from scratch meals for breakfast and dinner. I wish we had time for Pinterest-y snacks. Instead I've got Gogurt and an apple ready for the car ride in the morning and dinner will involve some sort of frozen chicken. Things may not be exactly as I would have planned, but we got this, Kid. Bubbie and I are ready and excited and determined to make this a great school year for all of 7 of us (9 if you count the dog and fish). We're making memories whether we mean to or not. I hope these memories are wonderful and happy and big and grand and full of family and friends and village.
A lot of parents are nervous about sending their kids into the world. I'm not nervous, really. I am excited to watch you grow and learn and am honestly fascinated to see who you're becoming. Out of all the Mamas in the WHOLE WORLD I get to be yours. You're the best gift I've been given.
Happy First Day of Kindergarten, Sweets. You are loved!
Mama
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