Ready, Set, GO!

I've been told that once your children start school, time flies by and before you know it they are skipping college classes and playing Beer Pong.  Of course, I was also told that when she was a baby I should savor every moment because it goes by too fast.  Well, to that, I would like to say THANK GOD IT WENT BY FAST!  Savor every moment?  I dare you to savor every moment of a colicy baby who screams when you put her down like you've just set her body on fire.  Savor the nights of sleep in one to two hour increments, where you're so wasted you brush your teeth with hemmerhoid cream and you don't even care.  You just rinse and spit and shuffle hopelessly back to the screaming baby.  Savor the car trips where you have to pull over because the screaming baby has choked on her own spit and is in the back seat gagging and....screaming.  Savor the helplessness of not being able to make your baby happy, the jealousy of seeing those adorable quiet little babies babbling in the corner of coffee shops with their mothers while you try to bounce your child without spilling your coffee.  Not that it would matter since you haven't showered in three days and you're wearing a sweatshirt three sizes too big and stained with this mornings spit up.  Savor the frustration of being up at 1am and having to bounce on an exercise ball, while patting and shushing 15lbs of screaming hell.  No, I did not savor.  I cried a lot.  I cursed a lot.  I prayed a lot and I dreamed about the days when she would put a backpack on her tiny body, step on to a school bus and wave goodbye to me for the day.  I dreamed about today, the day Turtle starts kindergarten.

 

 

Backpack.  Check.

 

School Bus.  Check.  That is her waving in the front window.  I know you can't see it, but if you try really hard you can imagine it.

 

And here is she is getting off the bus at the end of the day.

 

After her first day, Turtle reported that she loved kindergarten because they got to watch a cartoon during lunch.  She also mentioned they had gym class.  This was said with awe in her voice and a sparkle in her eye.  Turtle is not an athletic child, but gym class is special.  After all, Turtle's hero Babymouse goes to gym class.  In case you don't know who Babymouse is, it's only Turtle's favorite book series in the whole world.  Babymouse is the reason Turtle learned to read.  She plows through Babymouse books, hardly even stumbling over words like 'literature', 'telephone' and 'argh'.  So if Babymouse went to camp, Turtle wants to go to camp.  If Babymouse has a dog, Turtle wants a dog.  If Babymouse goes to gym class, Turtle wants to go to gym class.  Now if I can just talk the Babymouse people into making a Babymouse Goes To Bed Early and Without Fuss Every Night book.  But at least now when I tuck my Turtle into her bed, it doesn't involve hours of bouncing, shushing, patting and dreaming about kindergarten.  Now kindergarten is my dream come true and Turtle sleeps in her own bed......mostly.