A Week of Firsts

Isabelle is going through another growth spurt. Her emotions are all over the place, she cries at the drop of a hat, and she's accomplishing new things every day.

Just this weekend, we were swimming over at Mom-Mom SuSu's house and she finally let Ed teach her how to swim underwater without holding her nose. This was a big feat for sure, we've been working on it for the two years since we moved to Florida. The kid can swim like a fish, she can dive down for rings on the bottom of the deep end, and she finally mastered a pretty decent cannonball (even though she can't create much of a splash since she's so small). But this past weekend, she stopped holding her nose and now can jump in, swim, and dive underwater without holding her nose.

Then on Monday, she was able to yo-yo for the first time. She can get it rolling up and down about 4-5 times before it finally peters out. Hey, I think that's probably more than I can do.

And finally, she told us she was R-E-A-D-Y to get those training wheels off of her bike. I knew she'd eventually come around to it so we haven't pushed it. We tried to take them off a few months ago and just was NOT prepared or confident enough to give it an honest try so we put the trainers back on her bike and figured we'd wait until she made up her own mind. That was yesterday. We don't have the benefit of hills in Florida so we had to settle for the grass field in our local park. The grass is super short, almost like a putting green so it's pretty easy to pedal on it. It took her about 10 minutes and then she finally just got it. She wasn't confident enough to give it a try on the sidewalk or pavement yesterday, but we'll go up to the park each day after dinner and let her practice a few minutes. I think it should only take her a few days before she's ready for the open sidewalk and we'll go back to riding bikes to school (or Rec Center Summer Camp in a few weeks).

So this has been a BIG week for our little girl. She's growing so fast and she continues to amaze us every day. Kindergarten wraps up here in just 3 weeks, I can't believe the school year is already over. What a fast, fun year it's been. Looking forward to a fun eventful summer, starting with a summer vacation in Maryland the day after school lets out for 10 days.

Kindergarten!

Izzi's first day of Kindergarten was today. I didn't think this whole Kindergarten thing was going to affect me that much. I mean, the kid's been in daycare since she was 3 months old. And, she's been in 5 different daycare places over those 5 years so she is used to having to start out at a new place.

So it surprised me this week when I found myself really quite emotional. And I know it's not because she's "leaving" us, it's because she's growing up so very fast. Too fast for my liking. This is the first day of REAL school. That preschool stuff is for amateurs. We now have daily take-home folders, homework, calendars with tons of events, a PTA and administration to navigate, and so many other surprises yet to be uncovered.

Last Friday, we got 2 letters in the mail from school. Both were from Izzi's new teacher, Mrs. Uzzillia. One was written to her, the other to me and Ed. And that's the culprit that caused my first breakdown. I sniffled and weeped into a balled up fist of tissues like I'd sprung a leak. Then I pulled myself together, kicked myself for being soft, and proceeded to have yet another great family weekend full of fun, friends, and sunshine.

Monday was the open house, for an hour during lunch. Mrs. Uzzillia put us parents to work! We had an 18-point checklist we had to accomplish within 30 minutes in her classroom which included filling out forms, navigating the classroom, unpacking our school supplies, and reading some lists she had placed around the room. One of the last items on our checklist was to take the postcard that was provided in one of three folders she handed us, and write a first-day-of-school note to our child. Mrs. Uzzillia was going to read them all out loud on the first day (Tuesday) to the class. Well, I didn't get past "Dear Izzi" when Ed was plying me with a well-stocked hand full of tissues once again. I then proceeded to sniffle the entire 30 minutes the poor teacher was talking to us all, because of that damned note.

So that brings us to Tuesday. The first day of school. The day I was now dreading because of all this crazy crying I'd been doing all week. But today was different. Today, I knew she was nervous so I knew I had to hold my stuff together until I got out of there so she didn't see it.

But the whole walk to school, she was skipping down the sidewalk (clearly not nervous). And she marched right into class and took over. She remembered where her lunchbox went, where her backpack get stored in her cubby, where her desk was with her name proudly displayed. She sat down with a smile and looked in her new pencil box with all her supplies (I used to love school supplies when I was a kid). There was a piece of paper on her desk asking her to draw a picture of herself on the first day of Kindergarten. She immediately got to work, and paused for a moment and said, "Mommy? I'm not nervous at all anymore!". Which of course, made me bawl my eyes out. 

I was good, though, I did wait until later so she didn't see me. But, I'm still crying about it now as I type this.

My big, brave, girl. You amaze me every day. You are SO gonna rock this Kindergarten thang.