I trust you will treat her well

I know a part of me is rejoicing at these 6 hours a day I have just to myself to complete all of the things I need to get done but a bigger part of me (a much bigger part) is mourning right now the loss of my little girl.  Now of course she is still my daughter and she gets to come home to me every night but now she isn't totally her mommy and daddy's little girl. She is a kindergartener in Mrs. Saucier's class and the Bossier Parrish School Board mandates that Monday through Friday from 7:50-2:25 she is theirs.  It is such a different feeling when before it was always a choice if she went anywhere and now it is required.  If we just want to stay cuddled in our beds, that can only happen on Saturdays and Sundays.  I miss her, I truly do and I am afraid that I'm going to lose that innocent, wonderful, wholehearted, genuine little girl that I love more than anything in the world.  I truly love the person she is.  I joke that she should work in public relations because she is always complimenting the people around her and making you feel good about your self.  Nobody is allowed to have low self esteem around that girl.  Though I don't feel that I am, I hear at least 10 times a day from here that I am wonderful and beautiful.  How can you not love that? Yesterday on the way home she told me that Daddy and I were the best because we always know what to say to make her happy yet it is her who is always the one complimenting us.  Needless to say she is just my most favorite person to be around.  What I'm afraid of is that now she is going to know that the world isn't perfect and sometimes people aren't always nice.  In our home she was the center of the world but at school she is just another student.  Right now she believes us wholeheartedly when we tell her she is the best, smartest, and prettiest little girl in the world but I am afraid that as the school year goes on she will start to doubt that and it breaks my heart.  I could be totally wrong and I pray to God that I am but nobody can deny that sometime school can be rough.  There is a poem written that put so beautifully the way I'm feeling inside.   It's called: I trust you'll treat her well

Dear World:

I bequeath to you today one little girl...in a crispy dress...with two brown eyes...and a happy laugh that ripples all day long.. and a flash of light brown hair that bounces in the sun when she runs.I trust you'll treat her well.She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning...and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. And never again will she be completely mine.Prim and proud she'll wave her young and independent hand this morning and say "Goodbye" and walk with little lady steps to the schoolhouse.Now she'll learn to stand in lines...and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for the sounds of school-bells...and deadlines...and she'll learn to giggle...and gossip...and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way when the little boy 'cross the aisle sticks out his tongue at her. And now she'll learn to be jealous. And now she'll learn how it is to feel hurt inside. And now she'll learn how not to cry.No longer will she have time to sit on the front porch on a summer day and watch an ant scurry across the crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn and kiss lilac blooms in the morning dew. No, now she'll worry about those important things...like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friends is whose. And the magic of books and learning will replace the magic of her blocks and dolls. And now she'll find new heroes.For five full years now I've been her sage and Santa Claus and pal and playmate and mother and friend. Now she'll learn to share her worship with her teachers ...which is only right. But no longer will I be the smartest woman in the whole world. Today when that school bell rings for the first time...she'll learn what it means to be a member of the group...with all its privileges and its disadvantages too.She'll learn in time that proper young ladies do not laugh out loud...or kiss dogs...or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms...or even watch ants scurry across cracks in sidewalks in the summer.Today she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends. And I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long, lonely journey to becoming a woman.So, world, I bequeath to you today one little girl...in a crispy dress...with two brown eyes...and a flash of light brown hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs.I trust you'll treat her well.




This is definately a time to of joy as she starts this new path in her life but the past has been so wonderful that I'm just a little sad to let it go :(


Now on to the happier parts of back to school.  First is the outfit.  We chose this :

Then we got tucked into bed and read some bedtime books

The next morning started with a breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits.  YUM! Then we got her all ready and had to take the traditional picture outside.  

Her daddy and I then made the 10 minute journey to T.L. Rhodes.  And there she goes taking that first big step into a whole new world

We walked her in and I did really good, no crying and I didn't linger.  Now her daddy on the other hand did not do so well.  He was teary eyed and didn't want to leave.  I practically had to pull him out of there.  She is definitely the apple of his eye. 

So we let her go whether we liked it or not with the hopes that the world would treat her well.