Rachel: First day of grade one

On the eve of the first day of school we had all of our kids in bed and asleep by 9:55. Not too shabby, right? Miriam was the first one to fall asleep and I'm not really sure whether Benjamin or Rachel fell asleep next. They both spent some time crying in their beds about the injustice of being sent to bed. But before that Rachel stayed up and read and Benjamin had some baby time with Mommy and Daddy.

He's recently begun standing on his own...kind of. He's not actually all that into standing but will do it occasionally when he's not thinking about it. We were trying to get him to stand for a picture and he wasn't having it—he kept sitting down for safety. Here he is right before landing on his little bum:

Benjamin has recently also fallen in love with balls. We got a new ball at the grocery store when we went shopping last week since one of our balls died last summer and we've been kicking it, limp as it is, around the yard. Balls that actually hold air are a lot more fun, as Benjamin has discovered. He's been chasing that ball—and any ball—all around the house for days. Last night we found a tennis ball in the toy box and were playing catch/roll with it.

In just a few months I'm sure we'll reinstate the "no balls in the house!" rule, but for now he's relatively harmless.

The girls had picked out clothes and laid them out so they could be ready for the first day of school. Miriam was so excited—she was going to wake up and walk Rachel to the bus (she ended up sleeping in until 9:45 and then was worried because Rachel was gone and she couldn't find her anywhere). Here's Miriam's outfit:

The book isn't part of the outfit but it is a nice touch. Andrew added it when we cleaned up the living room before going to bed.

And here's Rachels' outfit:

She's mostly eschewing pink these days; turquoise is still her favourite colour but when turquoise (or another shade of blue) isn't available, she often chooses green.

On a completely unrelated note, whoever thought up the idea of sewing in a contrasting colour to the back of shirt collars is a genius. Rachel put her shirt on the right way this morning for the first time in a long time.

Here she is all ready for grade one (don't worry about those stains on her shirt; they're just water):

And here she is with a real smile!

And here she is by the mailbox (we're really excited about our zinnias):

Rachel loved school today. She still takes the bus with our backyard neighbour because he switched schools, too! She was looking forward to having our friend Diego ride the bus with her but unfortunately he won't be going back to school for a while—he was diagnosed with Wilm's tumor, a form of kidney cancer, and had a three-pound tumor removed on meet-your-teacher day. It was a quite a shock for everyone! Now he's looking at six months of chemotherapy. The first half of the school year's going to be a bumpy road, that's for sure.

Still, Rachel's excited for her new school, even if Diego's not there to show her the ropes.

There are two girls from her kindergarten class in her grade one class, which is so crazy! She was so excited to see them because she was afraid she wouldn't know anyone (except for her friend from ballet, we knew they were in the same class). She also randomly chose a desk on meet-your-teacher day and put her name next to a desk with the name Charlotte on it. Turns out that Charlotte is on her bus and they sat together on the way to school!

She had such a happy day. When we asked her what her favourite part was she said, "All of it! Math was fun and reading was fun and everything was just fun! Learning is fun!"

Her teacher did some magic tricks during math and she thought that was pretty cool.

The only part of the day she didn't like was the bus ride home, and I can't blame her for that. Her bus is supposed to come shortly after 4:00, several minutes earlier than her bus arrived home last year. I took Miriam out to the bus stop to meet her at 4:05. I chatted with our neighbours while we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

Miriam and I wandered up and down the street. I let her splash in puddles.

We waited. And waited. And waited.

Andrew came out to see what the hold up was. He went back inside to call the school. But apparently the office closes at 4:00 so they were no help (because there was no one to answer the phone). He searched through the papers on my desk (not an easy task) and found the phone number for transportation. They said she should be home at any minute—her bus was just turning onto our street.

And it was!

Rachel emerged, hot and sweaty.

Apparently a car-rider had boarded the bus instead of meeting his parents at the front of the school, so the bus had to turn around mid-route, take the child back to school, and then continue the route. Rachel didn't get home until 5:00! It was brutal! But she remained in high spirits and chattered on and on about how amazing her first day at school was. She's so excited to go back tomorrow!