1st Day as a "Grader"

This is Elisabeth's first day of Kindergarten:



First Day of First Grade:







Elisabeth is officially a "grader", the term she gave to the older kids while she was in kindergarten. She wanted desperately to be a "grader" and be at school all day long with her dad and her friends. Today she got her wish. She woke up very excited and ran into my room at 6:15 a.m. to wake me up. She was quite upset at me for not already being up. It had been a long night with the baby and I just couldn't pull myself out of bed! She matter of factly told me I had to help get her ready for school so that she wouldn't make her dad late!

I pulled myself away from the clutches of my soft pillow and a warm baby I had cuddled up next to after feeding her at 5:00 a.m. and proceeded to help Elisabeth get ready. The first drama was that her socks (which were knee length for her skirt) did not EXACTLY go to the same length on each of her legs. After a little adjusting, we moved on to the next problem... her hair. I brushed her hair and flat ironed it to put her headband in. She was very perturbed that her hair length on each side wasn't EXACTLY the same length either. I ended up adjusting the headband and straightening out her hair a bit more and for some strange reason her hair length was the same again! She also needed the perfect breakfast of scrambled eggs. Jake made the mistake though of making YUMMY eggs instead of the plain eggs Ellie had asked for. Oops. Mental note - she is not a fan of fresh tomatoes and ham in her eggs for breakfast. After she picked at her breakfast Kathleen and Shanowa came over. I quickly took some pictures of Ellie outside, Ellie called grandma, and then Jake and Ellie were on their way for the first day of school. I should have taken a picture of her and Jake together, but Jake was frantically trying to pull his life together to get out the door! It was so cute to see them leave together and I'm so grateful that Ellie gets to go to school with her dad.

Even with the drama of the morning, I have to be grateful that Ellie didn't take it as far as my other niece, Jessica. Jessica was such a perfectionist that some days she would refuse to go to church or school because her hair wasn't just right, or her clothes were wrinkled, or she didn't like what she had to wear! There must be something about those girls who are headstrong. Jessica starts medical school next week in St. Louis. I wouldn't mind if Ellie followed in her footsteps! First things first... gotta make it through the 1st grade!