Off she goes

Yes, I still have pictures to post from our road trip to Idaho, but life keeps on moving and happening, even while on vacation, and I have something else to share today.

My little five year old is now in someone else's care for six hours of each week day.
She has started a summer Kinder Camp, which brings on mixed emotions on my part, but also which prompted me to schedule a mommy/daughter date night the night after we got home as I completely forgot that she'd need a backpack. Ooops.
So after dinner, we sneaked past the toddler still looking for his shoes, and headed out the door.
I let her choose what we should do.  My little bookworm wanted to pick out a backpack, buy her own book from Bookman's, and get ice cream, which she "really, really wanted" (but didn't find worth the effort of getting out of the car for as she'd just started reading her book).

We talked about a lot of things, most of which didn't surprise me.  She commented on the lady she saw a while ago that had really long, really pink fingernails. She told me she had been lost three times (each for about 30 seconds), and we talked about how she felt.  She wished her backpack had some yellow on it, but thought that orange was pretty close, so it was okay.  She said that if we made a picture book of the photo of us behind the fence, the title would be "Silly".

She held my hand and chattered through all of our stops. For once, she had all of my attention.

When she was in bed, and long after it got quiet in the house, she said "Mom...I love you", and I thought about our evening and I knew it was one we'd both cherish, as short as it was.

Now she is off on her own. I dropped her off at Kinder Camp yesterday morning, wondering how she would do. Wondering if she will stand up for herself if need be, wondering if she will be the quiet mouse at the back of the pack, or the eager beaver that talks too much, wondering if someone will notice if she can't open her milk carton, or if she is upset. Wondering if I've done my job preparing her for this, and wondering if her first experience of life as a Kindergartner will be a good one.

First day of Kinder Camp

I left her at the table in the cafeteria. As soon as I walked away, she had turned to the girl next to her and started a conversation.  She didn't even see me turn back for a final wave at the door.
I left smiling to myself.