The big day...

Noelani and Shaylin started school last week on Tuesday and have LOVED every minute of it. Noelani is thriving as an 8th grader and making even more friends then she already has, keeping me confused to death Algebra I and French B, and coming home with funny stories about her wacky teachers every day. She was frustrated that even on the first day there was homework and it's not let up at all! Now that's funny stuff!

Shaylin has let her teacher know that she cannot have homework because "I have to play with my sister, eat dinner, watch America's got Talent, take a shower, and read a book each night so homework won't fit anywhere" Wow. Talk about having a way with words! Thank goodness she has a fantastic teacher, Noelani's 4th grade in fact, and knows that Shaylin is one of those kids that really speaks what's on her mind and then sorts through the consequences. The teacher then explained that not having homework wasn't an option but she'd keep that in mind for future reference. Shaylin so rocks!

So the first day of school went off without any major hitches, thank god! So starting from the top she woke up in a fantastic mood! I am talking a big giant smile on her face from the moment she opened her eyes and asked me if I remembered what today was. I played along and told her no, I didn't. She then jumps up on the bed and yells it's the first day of "kindy-garden" and she get's to go! It was wonderful to see her so excited and happy over something that most children would groan about.

Once we got to the school we did a quick stop by the nurses office to drop off tanks and do a quick rundown on switching bags in case she wanted to tote her tank behind her instead of carry it (she won't take off the lil'bug now that she's had a chance to get it on). Once we were done with that we headed down the hall to her big girl classroom and she had a few trepidations about entering but got over it quickly and did her thing. She put up her lunch box, her backpack, her jacket, and moved her name over to the "in" box. She got to pick where she wanted to sit and sat next to another little girl and started drawing a picture and just kept holding onto our hands. We stayed for awhile, 15 minutes or so, then got ready to go while they were moving over to the reading corner. She asked us to stay a few more minutes and we did, but left within 5 minutes as she settled in and started smiling!

When I went to pick her up from school at 12:15 I stopped at the nurses office first and before I even got all the way in the TA for her class saw me and said "Oh did you already see her? That's a good fat lip she's got!"

----groan-----

The nurse leads right into that and tells me that Alana was around the monkey bars and somehow ended up saying hello to someones foot. *ouch* She cracked her lip open pretty good, has a raspberry on her chin, and a fat lip. I am happy though that she had an aide keeping an eye on her and saw it happen and was able to take her into the nurse right away because she apparently, and would good reason, was sobbing and heaving. The nurse also told me that the SPED teacher brought her down about mid-morning to have her vitals checked and have the nurse take a look at her because she was very quite, pale, tired, and not responding like she had been 10 minutes ago & it worried them. I of course had told them that she does this, e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y & frequently, but it still didn't prepare them for what a change it is in her. After the nurse checked her SPO2, her HR, RR, blood pressure, and temp. (all within Alana range) they took her back to class but the SPED teacher stayed with her on a beanbag and just talked to her about dogs and cats and rainbows to keep her relaxed but involved with the class. She recovered enough to be able to work on another project and participate with the class during lunch and then the now infamous first kindergarten casualty so that was good. When I got there right after recess she was done, capital D O N E, done. She had an icepack on her lip, was curled up in the book corner listening to the teacher read and asking to go home.

Want to hear the best part though? I am talking the icing on the cake, the Pièce de résistance...as she was falling asleep in the car on the way home she said something that made every doubt I now had swimming around in my head about her going to school dissipate in an instant:

"it was awesome mommy, it was awesome."