First Day of School

We did it!  We survived it!   Lunch packed in her froggy lunch box and afternoon snack in her backpack. Ellee taking her time eating two bowls of cereal and Dani refusing to get dressed put me in a little bit of a fluster to get out the door, but I though we were doing good time-wise!

Shoes are on, all bags are accounted for, morning dose of insulin administered, so out the door we go!  As soon as I snapped this quick picture of Ellee in the drive way, I was surprised by the noise I heard... THE BUS!  I could have swore that we were leaving early enough to get pictures down at the bus stop. Did I waste too much time fighting with Dani to get dressed? Nope, it was a cruel joke for the bus driver to play on me to be 10 minutes early!  A brief panic mode and after running half way down the road, I realized that he will wait a few seconds for us.  That would be one heck of a memory though - missing the bus on our first day of school!   

After Ellee got on the bus, I bent down to take pictures of it driving away and Dani squeezes in between me in the camera "Mommy, I take the pictures!" She sat on my knee and I let her look through the view finder as I snapped the shutter.  We start to walk back to the house so that I can take Dani to Grandma's and I can head into work.  I took a deep breath and thought aloud "Ellee is headed off to school!"  I then heard little sniffles and looked down to see that my words made Dani realize that she wasn't going to have her buddy with her today so she was upset!  Seeing her cry made me cry!
 

I know that kids starting kindergarten and being on their own is the first step in their journey of independence that we parents try so hard to prepare our kids for.  I, under other circumstances, wouldn't have been so emotional.  Happy and excited - yes, scared and worried - no.  But this was different.  The hardest part for me was trusting some one else to take care of her T1D. At 16 months post-diagnosis, this is her first day with out either one of her 4 grandparents or Josh or I.  This is truly a HUGE day for her!  I am very excited, but with worry still being in the back of my mind.

Around 10:50, I received a call from the school.  Mrs. M was on the other end and very cheery.  She just called to tell me what her BS level was for lunch and said that Ellee excitedly showed her what she had packed and her froggy lunch box!  Such a relief to hear that she's in a good mood! 

I couldn't wait to get the girls from Grandma's and to hear how the day went!  "How was school, Ellee?"  "Mom, they have the coolest playground!"  It's hard to tell how that first day really went, but the fact that she was in a such a good mood and excited about *something* is good enough for me!