First Day

Today was Grace's first day of first grade. She was slightly nervous this morning on our way to school, but seemed okay once we got to her classroom. Eve and I gave our hugs good-bye and made the long walk back to the car. I kept my composure (no tears like when she went to kindergarten last year) but I felt a longing to be a fly on her classroom wall. I wanted to see her face as she opened her lunchbox for the first time in the cafeteria and hear her delight upon finding her favorite sandwich, her own juice box, a container of blueberries, and even home-made cookies. I would have loved to watch her make friends at recess and see her test out all the ways of getting up and down on the new "big-kid" playground. It would have been my pleasure to accompany her on her classes' tour of the school an help answer questions about the school library and point out which bathroom was closest to the classroom. But of course, those were not my experiences to be had. I would just have to wait six and a half long hours and hear her perspective on it all. When 2:30 came around I was not disappointed. When we met her outside her classroom door she gave a big smile and said, "I had a great day!" She didn't stop talking the entire walk to the car, the whole drive home, and continued to fill us in on details as she sat at our kitchen table and finished the last cookie she had been saving in her lunchbox. No, I wasn't a fly on the wall today, but it was almost better hearing the play-by-play through her eager eyes. It was a great first day!