Kindergarten

     Somehow, I have no idea how, my daughter grew up to be 5 years old. A whole half a decade passed since I gave birth to a cute, wrinkled little miracle. Well, at 5 years old it seems that my innocent girl should be ready to take on the world full frontal. She should be able to:
- let go of mommy,
- follow orders from a teacher she does not know,
- share 6 hours daily with 24 other kids she has never met,
- be completely independent in the bathroom,
- feed herself while seating with some other hundred kids, with minuscule adult supervision (one adult per a hundred kids),
- move to the after school program where she will meet other 100-200 kids, most of whom are older than her
- listen to other orders from other adults she has never met, and
- BE HAPPY at the end of the day.

What can I say, I was confident she will do great with all the things on the list, but the last one. I could not see how she could be happy while undergoing such major transitions. It would be a tremendous strain for me to meet so many new people, to be treated as an adult at my marvelous age of 37! But to be 5 years old and be happy to to all those things? No way, no how...

So, with this in mind, I started preparing Catalina for the first day of kindergarten. We packed her lunch, her backpack. We put aside her new pretty dress for the next morning.

We went to sleep, just to wake up for the first day of kindergarten!

We walked to school on a sunny, wonderful morning. Catalina picked a yellow leaf and started being silly. And somehow I remembered a fragment from a well known romanian novel, "Morometii" with a little boy who walks to school and notices the fallen leaves, how summer is ending and fall is coming. I remember writing essays for our literature class on how smart that boy was, how observant he was, and how starting school resembles the coming of the fall. Gone is the careless summer of the childhood, present is the more solemn fall of school, with higher expectations and challenges.

Kindergarten, here I come!

We got to school just a little early, to have 5-10 minutes for pictures, some last hugs and maybe to meet some new friends.

One last hug for mommy

So, the good bye time came fast. Without blinking, Catalina waved good bye and followed her teacher. She did not cry, she did not cling to mommy. My tiny girl was ready to take on the world!

Bye bye mommy, I'm a big girl now

Once again, my daughter teaches me strength. I cried, but she didn't. I worried for her, but I should have worried for myself. She is fine. She is better than fine. She is perfect.

Coming back home she was full of stories. How the teacher does this and that. How she went to the cafeteria and the teacher left, but she was ok. How she used a big person toilet and she was just fine. How she made a new friend. How she never cried because kindergarten is so much fun. How she wants to go back because they will have music class and art class. How, at the end of the day, SHE WAS HAPPY.

I could not be prouder. I could not love her more. I just have lo learn how not to burden her with all this love. She can't carry this load, she needs her arms and spirit free so she can run and fly and become the amazing lady I know she will be.