Thursday was Anna’s first day of kindergarten, and as with all change, there was some drama involved. She started out being excited, right up until the part that she realized that we were going to leave her new classroom without her. Most of the kids were patiently seated criss-cross-applesauce on the carpet waiting for class to start while the parents hovered and chit-chatted and took pictures. I needed to sit down next to Anna for her to sit in her spot. When the teacher sat down and began class, I could only inch away from Anna little by little. The teacher began reading a story about a raccoon’s first day of school and transitioned from the story into saying goodbye to the hovering parents. Anna was the only child crying when we left, but one of the teachers was comforting her and we knew she would recover quickly enough.

Today, dropping off at school was much less dramatic, and although she still needed some coaxing, there weren’t any tears shed. I went directly from school to Mission Beach to spend an hour with my brother and his family before zooming back to school to pick up Anna (kindergarten is scarely two hours on Fridays). When I picked her up, she didn’t want to leave. She really likes being with other kids and she adores her teacher.