It is bitter sweet to begin this new chapter in our lives. Our little Nugget survived her first day of "pretty school"... this long awaited day that our little girl has been begging for (for over a year she has been pleading to go to school) was not at all how I planned, but memorable nonetheless! Unlike some parents who dread the potential separation anxiety that typically goes hand-in-hand with sending little ones off to school for the first time, we knew that Jayme was more than ready to go to school- for one, she has been begging for it, and two, this three year old wants nothing to do with mommy, daddy or brother being a part of her school day- "Mommy, I go to pretty school and you stay here with baby Maffew okay?!"
We set off- complete with her choice of first day frocks, and a sleepy baby (I tried desperately to time his nap with our "get acquainted day" so I could wear a sleeping baby and focus on Jayme's first experience), and the biggest smile I have ever seen on her face... this is where it all went not-so-according-to-plan...
"Mommy you crashed! You crashed! Oh no!" As I pulled into the street in front of the school, I hit a pedestrian on a bicycle (17 year old running over an hour late to school, not wearing a helmet, not watching where he was going, and apparently without brakes on his bike)- Could have been way worse, but I am thanking the Lord he only walked off with skinned up knees... Also thankful for the other parents who were witness to the accident and helped this shocked mommy keep her sanity. As I attempt to get Jayme (now almost 30 minutes late) to her first day, the secretary notices I am frazzled and as I am apologizing for our late check-in and explaining the situation, we hear sirens. Fantastic.
"Mommy look! A firetruck!" Because he was a minor, one of the dads thought it best to call the authorities... Now this little situation of skinned up knees became a frenzy complete with firetruck and paramedics, ambulance, and two police units dispatched! As I somewhat frazzledly (yup I just invented it, add it to your dictionary- its now a word) walked Jayme to her classroom, Matthew decides he is too excited to sleep now with all the commotion- cue fussy/overtired baby.
The moment Jayme has been waiting for arrives as we finally make it to her new class and are greeted by her teachers... She identified her name tag and did a practice check-in and then was so proud to put on her red-apron (each class has different colored aprons). Not even five minutes in the classroom and we notice it was cooler outside than in (hard to believe a muggy 85/90 was cooler than the classroom climate!)... Mrs. Macias assures all of us that the air will be fixed by tomorrow, but in the meantime it will be a little uncomfortable (add a 20 lb fussy butterball strapped to my chest, and I am pretty sure I sweated off enough calories to eat an entire cheesecake).
"The police need to speak with you, Mrs. White" Super. As this was supposed to be a "get acquainted with your parents and teachers" day, I felt nervous leaving Jayme in a room with a bunch of moms and dads while I left her to take care of business ... but this was the silver lining of the day- my child had no problem sending me off so she could play in her classroom without me (or her fussy brother). I was escorted to my car in the back lot to retrieve my license and registration and give the officer my account of how I managed to hit a pedestrian... Much to my relief, Officer Phillips was comforting and assured me that according to vehicle code, witness account, my account, and the account of the guy I hit, I am in no way at fault for the accident. Sweet Relief! Then he proceeds to warn me that he sees this often when a minor is involved- the parents believe their child couldn't be to blame and they want to press charges or take the person (me) to court- so in other words I should alert my insurance and have the police report reference ready. At this point I am ready to take my roller coaster of emotion home and drown it in a bubble bath (can't do because we don't have a proper bath tub) or a glass of wine (but 10:30 AM is not 5:00 somewhere).
Back in Room 3, I attempted to get Jayme to go home, only she is having way too much fun meeting friends and playing with everything from play dough, to dollhouses, the kitchen and dress-up area, the baby dolls, and cars... I decided to give it my best effort in mingling with the other new parents (fussy baby is now becoming an overly tired-teething-crying baby). I am pretty sure every parent will remember me from this day forward after the chaos I brought with us to school... Finally, I found an opportunity to convince Jayme to leave with a new friend she made... not before she had her own little meltdown refusing to take off the dress-up clothes so we could go.
Although the day went nothing like I had planned, and there were some serious moments where I would have rather crawled in a hole to cry... I am thankful for the silver linings we made out with in the end- Jayme still enjoyed her first day and is excited to go back without mommy and brother on Thursday, I didn't kill or seriously injure anyone, and I didn't cry or melt down (although my emotional energy for the week was depleted in the course of one morning).
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| the only photo I managed to get because this mamarazi was too frazzled to remember to take any other pics |
