Second Grade meet-n-greet

I started this school year with a heavy heart.  Very heavy, to be honest.  Chloe's first day of school was Tuesday September 4th.  This was the first year that she was with her dad on the first day of school.  I did not get to take way too many pictures of her waking up, eating breakfast, and walking out the door with her chosen outfit on. I didn't get to take the morning off of work and drive her to school and deliver her to her classroom. These types of memories and moments are so incredible valuable to me, for many reasons.  The days are drastically numbered when I'll be able to participate on this level.   I want to experience, remember and document them.  Most other days, holidays included, I feel perfectly fine celebrating on an alternative day.  But missing out on this one was...so difficult.

For positivity sake, we did get to do a few things together for school! We went shopping for her new lunch box.  She chose one just like her's from last year, only blue.  It came with a water bottle again... she's hoping not to lose it like the last one. We agreed that if we can find a lunch box with a cat on it, we'll get that one. She said to me "Mom, I'm not sure if you quite understand how much I L-O-V-E cats.  CATS!  I love them!"  So... off I go, shopping for a lunchbox with a cat on it.  Or maybe I'll refrain from the retail therapy/love trap and let her be okay with the box we were able to find at the store.  Better yet, maybe I'll find the cat lunch box and she can earn it from her treasure chest of rewards.

We also got to attend her Meet-n-Greet for her new classroom and teacher! It was the friday before school started.  She'd been very nervous about starting second grade and having a new teacher, classroom, and classmates.  We've had endless conversations about what to expect, being okay with feeling nervous, and remembering all the times she's nervous to start, and then things turn out really fun.  At the meet-n-greet we found out that her two best friends are in class with her!!  That was such wonderful, exciting, relieving news.  She got to find her desk, put her name on it and find a chair that was just right for her. 

We explored the classroom a bit and found a fish tank that had no fish yet and a lot of books.  She was excited to find the books.  I found the bin of books about dinosaurs.  I pointed it out thinking she'd take an interest- you know since she's loved dinosaurs for so long... but she just said "Yea... I'm not as into dinosaurs anymore."  I actually think it was just the other day at home (as in two days before) we read one of her favorite dinosaur books together.  Alas, she wrote "Judy Moody" as her first choice for books the teacher can get for the classroom. 

She was also very nervous about her outfit.  She said she was too dressy.  She was happy up until I kept complimenting her on how pretty she looked - then she got increasingly self conscious about her wardrobe choice and wanted to change.  oops. We ended up talking to her into going with what she wanted to do to start with- and I kept my million compliments to myself.  When we got to the school- her very best friend was wearing essentially the same exact outfit.  I'm pretty sure she felt better after that.  Close one.