I... er... I mean SHE did it!!

We did it. We made it. We, I mean SHE, started Kindergarten....

How'd the first 8 days go, you ask??

Let's start at day 1. Day 1 was hard. Even Craig had to admit that it was harder than he thought it would be. Don't think I'm not onto your wearing sunglasses inside the school, Craig! It was hard. But it was fast. We walked her in. We dropped off her supplies. We hung her backpack. She sat at her seat and started playing with blocks. Bursting with pride. And then. We left. And I could feel my face start to get hot. And I could feel the tears forming. And then I was distracted. Tanner apparently didn't get the memo that you have to be 5 to go to Kindergarten. He was so mad that his sissy got to stay, but he didn't. I told him that it'd be okay, and that we were taking him to the zoo. He said he wanted his sissy to come with us. More tears for me. More tears for him. And Craig? He was still wearing his shades. But guess who didn't cry? Not a single tear. My Callie.

We took Tanner to the zoo and I kept checking the time to see if it was 2:00 so we could go pick up our baby. It took forever. Craig and Tanner rode the carousel at the zoo. I watched. I saw a probably 10 month old little girl riding with her Daddy. She looked like Callie. She had little sunglasses on. She looked so cute. And I had to restrain myself from kidnapping her. Ha. Just kidding. But I did have to restrain myself from walking over to her mother, shaking her, and telling her to enjoy every single second of her baby's life because if she even blinks, she'll miss it. Just like I'd been told a million times. I was that mom. I was that mom who was going to be that CRAZY mom who would actually approach a complete stranger, tears running down my face, and say those words. Would she listen? I lost it. I had held it together so well. Tears filled my eyes but never fell. Until the carousel. And some random baby girl and a dad and her mom.

We picked her up and she didn't look happy. I wanted to know why? What happened? Did she not like school? Was she bullied? Did she get sassy with her teacher and get in trouble? I walked over to her and she looked at me with tears in her eyes. But they weren't "those" tears that you are thinking. She was mad. She was mad at us for being there. She wanted to stay longer.

The next day, she got to ride the bus for the first time. She got on the bus proudly. She was so excited. She marched right up the stairs of the bus and never looked back. Not even a wave. This was much harder than dropping her off at school. I sobbed when I got back to the house. And I couldn't wait until she got home.

We waited for the bus to get back. It was a looong day. But the time had finally come. I was so excited. Tanner was so excited, too. (Oh, and he also missed the memo that he doesn't get to ride the bus, either). The bus stopped and I waited with so much excitement to hear about her day. And the bus door opened, two kids got off, and the bus left. And Callie was not one of the two kids. And I had a mini heart attack. It turns out she just missed her stop. She was still on the bus and thankfully some stranger somehow got her off the bus and she came running home with tears in her eyes.

So, we've made it. We've all cried. All for different reasons. We've survived the first couple of weeks.