Thursday, August 29, 2013

In Which Sam Starts Kindergarten with a Black Eye

I know, I know....photos are coming!  I promise!  But I just had to record our amazing first day of school here in sunny California.

We were 3 for 4 on tardies.
1 for 4 on black eyes.
2 for 2 on tantrums.

Waiting for a call from Social Services any minute now.

Our first-day-of-school morning started out just fine.  I was a little bit concerned because I have SIX combined drop-offs and pick-ups.  No worries, I have a double jogger and it was a nice day.

Well, one of the tires on my jogger popped.

No worries, I put Kaylyn in the backpack and Reillee in the stroller.  I appear a little more crazy, but am still functional.

We leave to take the boys to school.  Their school backs up to a huge park and I assume that we can just walk through the park to get to school.  Easy-peasy, right?

No.

The park is locked during school hours for the children's safety, duh!

So we go around the park, straight into the mass of junior high and high school kids walking to school (because by the time we got all the way around the park we were late and it was time for the upper grades to start).  We finally make it to school and into classrooms.  The look on Joshua's face as he frantically unpacked all his new school supplies from his backpack, dropping them all over the corridor was both terribly sad and terribly hysterical.  Contrast that with Benjamin, who had no idea what was going on at all...

I leave the elementary school to push through the mass of middle schoolers, frantically texting EmJ to tell her about the park closure and that she needs to give herself extra time.  Thankfully, she is so super-excited about starting school that she was already well on her way and met me at the edge of the pack of craziness in plenty of time for school to start.  I walk her in, pick up her schedule, pour over the map, and walk her to class.  I am very thankful that I wasn't the only stifling, over-protective parent there.

Then I walk home, and have an A-HA! moment.  Is it possible to walk the OTHER way around the park, thereby getting to school on time and avoiding the big kids.  Why yes, yes it is.  I feel incredibly stupid, but very relieved.

I get home in just enough time to get Sam ready to go to school.  She is a pretty new bike rider, but is so excited about being able to bike to school that we go for it.  Halfway to school, she steers away from a bush and into a crack in the pavement that stops her bike dead in it's tracks.  She goes flying over the handlebars and into the pavement.

AND THAT IS HOW IT CAME TO BE THAT SAM STARTED KINDERGARTEN WITH A BLACK EYE.

Here I am at an impass.  I can walk home and clean her up or we can go to school and clean her up.  Either way, we are now going to be late to the first day of Kindergarten.  Sam cries and cries and cries.  I make her wipe her snot on my shirt so that she doesn't get her first day of school outfit dirty.  I realize at this point that I didn't take a picture of her and that now I won't be able to because we have become frantic and teary and snotty and well, beat up.

So I get her calm enough to continue on to school.  She rides her bike the rest of the way yelling and crying, "I don't want to ride this dumb bike!" and "I need ice!" and "My finger is bleeding!" and "I'm never riding a bike again!"  When we get to school we forego locking up her bike, which is what she was SOOO excited about, and instead head to the office for a Band-Aid and some ice.  We finally get to class a few minutes late, and by the time I leave she is not smiling, but not crying.

(I should note here that I've been to the office too many times this past week and I'm pretty sure the office lady already hates me.  She's super-friendly.  (That was sarcasm.))

Hopefully today, I can get a good picture of that black-eye.  Also, we'll have to reenact the first-day pictures.

Fortunately, the day got better for the kids.  I intercepted the boys and was able to show them the new route home.  EmJ said she LOVED middle school.  When I picked up Sam, she was smiling. 

(Until she was running around with her newfound friend and slipped and scraped her elbow.  Thankfully, that was right before we left so I got to listen to her cry all the way home...again, on her bike.  Also thankfully, Reillee was also throwing a fit about wanting to ride in the backpack.  Needless to say, both girls took a good long nap when we got home.  Oh, and while we are on the subject of tantrums, I took Kaylyn to the PTA meeting and she was a wreck through the entire thing.  And she pulled an entire shelf of library books off the shelf.  And maybe ate some pages, I don't know.  I am pretty sure everybody here just thinks we are crazy, crazy, crazy.)

Another silver lining...I got a phone call right after school saying that Sam had been switched to the earlier Kindergarten class, so now the kids all go to school at the same time in the morning.  Hallelujah!

So everything worked out.  But it was an eventful day...and that black eye was so perfectly Sam that I am not even surprised that it happened to her.

Pictures to come!

3 comments:

Linds said...

I'm sorry, but that is hilarious.

Jenny Barker said...

I would have had a tantrum of my own. I'm sure you handled it beautifully.

Jenny

Bardsleyland said...

ummm, that is awesome. And where in California are you guys?