Kate’s first day of preschool was Tuesday. I don’t know who was more excited that this day was here. Kate or me? The morning went smoothly. Kate showered all by herself and got ready quickly (she picked out her own outfit the day before). No nagging. No racing on either of our parts. No complaining. No whining. No stress. It was a special day. A special day for a special girl required breaking out the “You are Special” plate. Eating breakfast on the special plate made all the difference. Kate beamed. The waffles tasted better on her plate. For her it was the best breakfast ever (even though they was just the extra waffles that I made yesterday).
“This was going to be the best day ever!” I told her. Her excitement for school was contagious. I can’t remember when we had a morning that went so well. . . Monday I was kind of nervous since it was the complete opposite start to the day. By the time we got out of the house school would have been over!
Anyway, Kate wanted me to drop her off and not come in. She was a little disappointed that I parked to walk her in and get a few pictures in front of the school. But seeing the other moms and dads with their cameras Kate decided she would pose for a few shots. I didn’t get to walk her to her classroom. You wait in the lobby and the teacher comes down to pick up their class. As we were waiting in the lobby, Kate noticed her Ariel mermaid tail fell off her backpack. She was quite disappointed about it– as in stop everything we have to find this or I will not be happy kind of a way. She said she was looking forward to showing her teacher that part of her backpack and now what was she going to do? She wanted me to go look for it, but it was too late to go back to the car to check. The teachers were coming down the hall and I didn’t want to have them wait on us or miss seeing Kate go to her class. I thought to myself, how annoying if this little thing ruins the perfect day that we are having and makes her have a bad first day. That would not be cool. After the class walked down the hall and I got Tyler all buckled in I noticed the tail on the floor of the car. Kate’s class was just entering the playground. I knew Kate didn’t notice me and I handed it to her teacher telling her how sad Kate was about losing this and how I didn’t want this to be the cause of a bad day for the both of us.
Kate was all smiles when I picked her up after school. The first thing I noticed getting Kate in the car was the Ariel’s tail on her back pack was scotched taped down as to never come off again. I thought to myself, I am really going to like Kate’s teacher. She just made my little girl’s day and made things right when I couldn’t. Kate told me her favorite thing about school was that “everybody got their own doors that open and shut that you can put your stuff into” (lockers). She was so excited about those. She had lots to say. She told me about the game they played, “Sleeping Snake” and the book they read, Baby Duck’s First Day of School, and why he was scared of school. She told me about the snack she had and how they were were round crackers but not the ones with the holes. I still don’t know what kind of crackers they were, but her enthusiasm about everything made me smile. When we pulled up into the garage and was about to get out of the car Kate said to me, “You are right, Mom. This is the BEST DAY EVER!”
Crockett Family 
