Schoolgirl

In the few years that I fell off the face of the blog earth, lots has happened. Family weddings and babies, and lots of celebrations and happy moments. There have been some sad and upsetting moments in between all of life's joy too, as is natural.

The biggest thing in my daily life that has changed is that Natalie is in elementary school! She started last September and is now a 1st grader! That was a huge lifestyle change for all three of us, as she was home with me for 5, almost 6 years. I remember before she started school she was talking about it and said, crying, "I'm a little nervous to start school because I've been with you my whole kentire (entire) life." It broke my heart.

Well once school came she made that adjustment with ease and adapted very quickly to her new day to day life. So far we have only had positive feedback on her behavior and school work from her teachers. Matt and I had our parent teacher conference last week and her teacher said Natalie is an absolute delight to have in the classroom. She is kind and respectful, a hard worker, and helps motivate her classmates. She received two awards. one was a merit award for scoring all 3 and 4's (she actually got all 4's) on her progress report and the other was a citizenship award! She is reading at a level "I" which is above grade level right now.

I miss her dearly during the day, but  I am fortunate enough that my schedule allows me to be super involved at her school. I get to volunteer, come to lunch with her, or just attend any school programs/events. Try not to balk at this next line, but I'm actually a "room parent" for her class and planned and hosted a class craft party the other week, and I didn't fuck it up!

Socially she is still more on the reserved side, but she seems very well liked by her peers and has made lots of new friends. One day last year in kindergarten, probably in the 3rd week or so, when I went to pick her up from school I had several of her classmates run up to me and beg for a play date with her. This was all as new to me as it was to Natalie since the only socialization we really did was with her cousins or my friend's kid's. We happily accepted all invites and have loved getting to know all her peers and their parent's.

For us so far school has been a really great experience. I know there will be times of frustration with schoolwork, or bullies, or just plain ole getting burnt out, but for now I really enjoy this chapter in life and have loved seeing my little girl flourish.