1st grade baby

I would like to say that we were cool, calm and collected, ready to start the school year with a bang.  We were pretty far from it though.  We had just arrived home from our vacation to Idaho that morning at around 2:00.  Chad had to jump right back into work that morning as well.  Luckily, we had live-in back up!  Aunt Saundra (who had picked us up at the airport that morning) jumped right in to help out.  She helped mad the crew while I helped Aimee get ready, who I had let sleep as long as I thought I could get away with.  Knowing that this would be the case before we left for our trip, we had packed all of her school supplies and tried to have what we could ready.  It was a crazy morning.

Aunt Saundra also kept all of the other kids home with her so that I could take Aimee to school without little helpers.  We arrived a few minutes early so that we could go formally meet Aimee's teacher.  Her principal, also knowing that we would be out of town until school started, and would miss "meet the teacher night," had personally called me to let me know Aimee would be in Mrs. Lotspaih's class that year.  She told me that she was new to the school this year, but of course how wonderful she was.  We took a quick picture and shook hands.  That was about all we had time for before she had to rush off to see her own first grader off.  She invited us to take our time and scope out the classroom before meeting in the gym.  Aimee had been a little apprehensive about everything all morning, but it was about this time that things got very real for her.  As a mom, I wanted to break down and hold my baby girl and enjoy that she wanted to stay home with me!  But I knew that as a mom, I had to keep a stiff upper lip.  So we walked around the room and I tried to make a big deal about how great everything looked.  When it wasn't working for either of us, I knew it was time to go.

We walked hand in hand down the hall to the gym.  With tears on both our faces, we hugged and I promised her I would be waiting anxiously for her to come home.  4:00 is so far away!  She dutifully took her place with her new class, and my heart broke as I stood in the hall and watched her cry about being gone all day long from her brothers, sister and me!
When 4:00 rolled around and the bus came around the corner that day, and almost every other school day until the weather turned cold, we were all there waiting for our Aimee to tell us how great 1st grade was.

By the time Porter started school the following week, Aimee was in the groove, and ready to show her little brother how school is done!