Last one to start...

[senoritafish]

Well, my dearling daughter finally started kindergarten Monday after a three day delay; I had mentioned to John about getting Avalon in to the doctor and making sure all her immunizations were up-to-date, and he replied that the school office had told him that as long as she had her physical within the first month of school (and all her previous shots up-to-date) that would be all right. However, we forgot that a TB test is required before she could attend class. The kid's regular doctor's office had no appointments available until the next week; so John wound up taking her to a walk-in clinic. Then the test couldn't be read until two days later, on Friday afternoon. I felt like the world's worst mom, with her missing her first day of school. Plus we missed out on that being able to sit in her class for the first 20 minutes or so. I did get to get her ready, put on her new dress (a school uniform looking thing with a black top and pink and black plaid pleated skirt - John picked it out for her), combed her hair and put it in a ponytail. When we got to school John rushed her in and the teacher was pretty adamant about no parents, which I was pretty sure of already, and the reason I stayed outside the door. Then I had to go to work, so I left the camera with John to take a couple pics of her first day.

The teacher sent John out the door with a plastic baggie containing a small package of tissues, a teabag, and a cotton ball, with a poem and a short note stapled to it. The tissues were for obvious reasons, and the note instructed parents to, after arriving home, to fix a cup of tea, put our feet up and then hold the cotton ball to remember the gentle spirit of our child. A sweet thought; however, I couldn't helping thinking that lately Avalon's been about as gentle as professional wrestler - especially with her brothers, and frankly, I'm counting on school and interacting with more kids than usual to burn off some her energy. Lately her greeting as I come home from work has been running full tilt and crashing into me.

And I also couldn't help remembering that five years ago that day, I spent a good part of the day pacing the living room with a three-week old in my arms, in tears as I listened to the radio about a woman who couldn't get into (or out of I don't quite remember) the city to pick up her baby of a similar age from daycare, and other horrible stories. And desperately wondering what kind of irrevocably changed world we'd brought her (and her brothers) into, and where would be next.

Looking back at my parent's and grandparent's worlds (Pearl Harbor, World War II, Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis, various earthquakes and other natural disasters), and watching Avalon charging through her classroom door, maybe not so different.

Comments

[angelsmum.livejournal.com]

None of my kids have anything like a gentle spirit, would have needed a ball of barbed wire rather than a cotton ball! hehe. I never needed the tissues either. I'm such a bad Mom. ;)

I don't think the world has changed that much.

no joke

[vwsrmylife.livejournal.com]

i was feeling the same way too. only milo was just a few months old and i was taking him in to get his first round of shots and all that shit was going on. i am so glad i wasn't the only mother sitting on that day worrying about what the hell i had done bringing a child into this world.

thanks for sharing

g