the first day (of the rest of her life)

Maddie and I packed Lizzy off to first grade this morning. Whoa!

I've been feeling a lot better about this stage of life since we went to her school's open house last Wednesday afternoon. It's simply a tremendous school, and the kids and teachers alike seem really sweet and nice. I'm sure there's devilment in every school, or every area where people come together, but as far as mommies can expect, it's a great place to be.

As you can see, she chose her trademark 'two unmatching patterns' look for her first day. Hey -- why change things up now!

So I'm sitting here hoping that, despite her refusal to eat more than three bites of cereal this morning (at her day care, they provided a breakfasty snack at 10 a.m.), she made it until lunchtime (11:15) before expiring of starvation -- or worse, whining about being hungry! Also, that she managed NOT to scratch her head so much that alarm bells rung in the minds of teachers and school nurses. Yes, parents, feel free to hate me -- we did treat her hair (and bed, etc.) for lice on Saturday night, but she's still scratching. Forget cockroaches -- lice are the REAL survivors of the apocalypse! We plan to treat her again this weekend, as the directions suggest (second treatment a week to 10 days later).

Also, the kids have this seven-digit student code that they're supposed to remember to access their line of credit for lunch. I'm serious. We plugged in some lunch money on the computer last week, and she should be set for a couple of months. So stealing lunch money now, I suppose, consists of swiping someone's number. Which I sincerely hope doesn't happen. It's all so ... so ... so the year 2000 now! Not the days of dinosaurs, as when I was a kid. Man, I drank so much chocolate milk in elementary school, I've been soured on it ever since. Those were the days.

Here she is, getting on the bus. *sniff* My girl's growing up so fast ...