Dear Baby Girl: Your First Two Weeks Of School Have Been…

Dear Princess, 

Girl, your mother is worn out! We’re coming up on week three of kindergarten (KINDERGARTEN!) and I’m just adjusting. Yes, I’m still adjusting, whereas you seem to have taken to school like a fish to water. You get up in the morning without complaint, pull on your favorite navy blue jumper (which you insist on wearing every day), toss your bookbag on your back, and bounce out the door with your pigtails swinging. 

I had been so nervous this whole summer. A million and one questions went through my mind: How would you like the teacher? Would the work be too challenging? Not challenging enough? Would you make friends? Would you miss me? Would the other kids be nice? 

Turns out, I shouldn’t have worried. You are doing a great job. Even when you came home with assignments that I wasn’t sure you could complete, you busted it out like the mini genius you are. 

I can’t even…express how proud of you I am. You make me beam every day when I pick you up from school. You run to me, and you pull all your papers out of your bookbag before I can even buckle you in your booster seat. You can’t stop talking about the fun things you’re doing in school, which lets me know that the financial sacrifice we’re making to send you to a private school is well worth it. 

Your teacher is amazing and so far your classmates sound amazing. All the parents at this school are super involved, and I’m still working my way around, learning the ins and outs of the school. You’ve got your first field trip coming up this week – it’s like you’re a real, live kid now. Not my baby anymore and that makes me sad. 

Sure, you still randomly hold out your arms and ask for a hug, and you will say, “I love you,” unprompted at least once a day. But I do miss when you were just my chunka-wunka, and I’d snuggle in your soft, chubby rolls of skin. But this little girl you’re growing up to be? I like her a whole lot. She’s funny and smart and she’s kind. 

You’re brilliant and I know, I know—you hear Mommy say this every day. But you just better get used to it because I will continue to tell you every day just how marvelous you are. Sometimes I can’t even look at you, because you shine so bright and I’m so overcome with emotion that I was chosen to be your mother. Sounds sappy, but oh my goodness is it true. 

So you just keep on doing you. Be yourself. Don’t worry about what other people say to you or about you. You are the sunshine of my life and I adore you so much. 

I love you to the moon and back, 

Mommy