Johanna's elementary school was combined with a neighboring school this summer, which means that there is a lot of chaos going on. So. They decided that the odd grades (1, 3, 5) would go today and the even grades (K, 2, 4) would go tomorrow, and then everyone would go on Thursday. This is fine and all, but having a kid who has been counting down the days for school to start since roughly the Fourth of July, getting to go one day and then having a day off is a bummer.
(P.S. This is part one, by the way, because Abby had today off, but goes tomorrow. Today was sixth grade only at the middle school. Being a big seventh grader, she used the extra day to... text her friends, probably.)
Johanna was up at 7 a.m. this morning (surprising--I'd guessed she'd be up at 6), and was jumping around and chattering away about this FINALLY being a school day. She ate breakfast (one of Eric's deer sausage meat-stick things. Well, why not?), brushed her teeth, and then consented to let me brush her hair, but only because she wanted pigtails. The mere fact she let me touch her hair with a brush is a miracle of epic proportions. Let's just say that girl usually rocks the rat's nest in back of her head because I'm too exhausted to argue about the benefits of the hairbrush on most mornings.
I took a few pictures of her before we left, using Abby's iPod because my camera is experiencing technical difficulties (namely, iPhoto won't recognize the pictures. I just need to go in there and figure it out, but I haven't had time or the general inclination). We were a little later out the door than I would have liked, but it was fine--there were still plenty of kids being dropped off when we arrived. We waited in line for a while (behind this poor kid from the school that closed, who was just having a heck of a time, and I could tell her parents were anguished that she was so upset. I tried to introduce her to Johanna, but she seemed unmoved. Well, she's six. What's one nice word against all that scariness?), and then it was Johanna's turn to get checked in. She went to her desk, slid her backpack underneath, and began to work on a coloring page. I dared to take a picture of her at this particular moment, and she actually rolled her eyes at the other kids around her and shook her head, as if to say, "Parents. Whatcha gonna do?" Excellent. It's good to know I am not only an embarrassment to the preteen segment of our household.
One other thing I want to note: Our elementary school is awesome. Everywhere that Johanna went, teachers were calling out, "Johanna!", and asking about her summer, and giving her hugs, and generally making her feel special and welcome.
I grabbed a pizza on the way home to celebrate the first day of school for Johanna / back-to-school eve for Abby. Johanna met me at the door (Abby was too absorbed in a new book to give me more than a nod) and gave me a hug. I asked her about her day, and this is what I've been able to glean:
- Johanna has two new best friends.
- She only remembers the name of one.
- The friend whose name she remembers "has big teeth like me! But not as big as that kid in Harry Potter."
- They are best friends now because they all asked each other if they would be friends, and they all said yes.
- School was "fun-ness!"
- After school care was "great!"
- She "drew the best picture of my life today!"
- She went over to a friend from last year "just randomly to say hi, and then I walked away."
- Three kids in her class last year walked up randomly just to say hi.
- Apparently walking up to people randomly is the in thing to do in first grade.
Johanna was in bed by 8 p.m. (she's so tired), but of course, true to form, she's had to come out a couple of times to remark on the thoughts in her head, or to see what everyone else is up to. It probably doesn't help that Eric is packaging up his hops tonight and has the FoodSaver running.
I think it's pretty obvious that tonight's song has to be Theory of a Deadman, "End of the Summer." (Sometimes it's almost too easy.) Those days are gone, it's over now, we're moving on. Goodbye, summer.
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