Our first day of real school is… DONE! Yeah baby. My baby! She’s growing up. Sniff sniff. (Kindergarten teachers everywhere are rolling their eyes right now. Apologies. Turns out I’m that kind of mom. Who knew. I’ll be over it soon.)
On the big day, everything went exactly according to plan…
We woke up early. Got dressed flawlessly. Packed our do-good backpack with our snack and school supplies just like our fabulous new teacher asked us to. We even had fancy mini French braids coming from each side of our head and fastened in the back with a bow like a princess. (Yay Mom!) My LadyP was fired up. So was I.
A swift drop off and an equally swift pickup went off without a hitch. Except for the funny fail I didn’t see coming…
After pickup, my girl refused – refused! – to tell me anything about the first day of school. Nothing. I got nothing! ?!?!?!?
Since I was lucky to have my sitter to watch my ‘three-nager’ LilMiss, I figured I’d take LadyP out to a special lunch, just her and me, so that we could bond like ladies do and she could boast about her day as a grown up student. We hit up our favorite go-to spot. She got her mac-n-cheese, I got my fuji apple chicken salad.
“So how was it?” I asked with an overly-huge grin on my face. She looked at me, gave me a ‘wouldn’t-you-like-to-know’ smile, shrugged her shoulders, threw her hands up and said “I don’t know.”
“Tell me… What did you do? Did you play? Did you learn anyone’s name? Did your teacher ask you a question?”
“I don’t wanna tell you. I’m not gonna tell you.” She smiled again, started giggling and then proceeded to wiggle and make all kinds of weird and silly faces and gestures in her chair from across the table.
“Well… did you like it?” I prodded.
“Hm-hmm.” She nodded with sealed lips and sparkling eyes, looking like she was about to burst out laughing. That was it.
EXCUSE ME. EXCUSE ME?????
This is the little girl who’s talked and talked and told me everything that goes through her sweet tiny head (sometimes telling me more than I need to know) for the past four and half years. This is the little girl who runs into the living room to tell me her sister is jumping on the bed. This is the little girl who willingly brushes her teeth and goes to bed without any drama. This is the little girl who consistently bounces out of bed and gets dressed all by herself. This is the little girl who brings her dishes up to the sink and cleans up when I ask her to. She’s always been my good girl and now suddenly doesn’t want to tell me anything… while pretty much mocking me in front of my face. Well I never.
This minor fail was not in my plan today. Hm. So I backed off a bit. She ate her mac-n-cheese. I finished my fuji apple chicken salad. We took pictures of each other from across the table.
And then I asked again: “So what did you do in class today? Did you play? Did you learn anyone’s name? Did your teacher ask you a question?” I wasn’t giving up. This is my job.
She tried to pull the shrugged shoulder & giggle trick again. She was playing me! Teasing me. No way was I giving up now. I kept staring at her… smiling, expecting, waiting, asking. She eventually confessed to playing on the swings, sitting on the floor, making a new friend and retelling a semi-confusing tale about a big jar of small and big marbles stored high up on her teacher’s shelf.
Okay. I’ll take it.
But just so we’re clear, my girl, I’m going to keep asking… and keep asking… and keep asking… until I get answers from you. From now until college, baby. Maybe even beyond college. Because I love you. Because you’re in school now. Because I’m your mom. Because it’s my job to know. Because that’s how we roll at our house.
And it all starts now.
HOW DO YOU GET YOUR KID TO SPILL DETAILS FROM THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL?
[…] something about catching your 5 year old – who just started ‘real’ school – standing on the same spot in your parents’ front yard that you did when you waited […]