First Days!

I don't know how this happened.  But I am the parent of an elementary school student.

Everyone says that, I know.  But the little girl who once loved turkeys more than any other creature, the one who insisted on calling her new baby sister Cinderella, is now in first grade.  And she loves it.  She loves morning recess and lunch with her friends, sometimes soup or buttered pasta that is still warm when she opens her thermos, like a little miracle every day.  She still takes dance and gymnastics, she still belongs to a Daisy Troop, and now she has homework everyday, and when she brought home her first list of vocabulary words, the English teacher in me was beaming while we talked about example sentences.

On Marley's first day of school, we waited at the bus stop with most of the kids and parents in our neighborhood.  Including Big Time second-grader Will, driven by Liz from his family's rental.  He still takes the return bus just about every day because his parents are usually around working on their home's reconstruction.  Sometimes Marley sits with Will on the way home, and when she tells me that, I'm pretty casual in my response, but on the inside, I can't get over how stinking precious it is.

And so now Marley's in school all day, every day.  And that means I get to spend some one-on-one time with little Toot.  Except, or course, for when she's in preschool.  And then I have an amazing, luxurious two and a-half hours of free time, which so far have been booked with doctor and therapy appointments, errands, visits to the nursing home, and, get ready: time with Rudy's preschool class.

Because, you see, during Rudy's meet and greet at her preschool this summer, her teachers asked me if I'd be interested in reading to the class when they go to the library.  Of course I said yes.  And so now every Tuesday my two and a-half hours are split right down the middle with a visit to the high school library, where I watch Rudy's preschool class wander from their classroom on the other side of the building, through the cafeteria, and up the main stairs in a straggly, adorable line.  And then they sit criss-cross-applesauce in front of me, and I read to them about (so far) dinosaurs and apples and bears.  Next week I'm departing from the curriculum and bringing my own selection, Bob Shea's I'm a Shark, which is about, and I quote, a "totally awesome shark" who is afraid of spiders.

I am really lucky to have two totally awesome kids, and so far, their first days of school are going just fine, like hands-on-their-hips-I-am-ready-for-this fine.