Arwen's big year
Well, the big event of Arwen’s sixth year is that she started kindergarten. Three and a half hours every day and a sea of scampering 5 year old playmates to choose from. Class time is no longer about mud play, kitchen toys, and dress up. And the outcome? She’s exhausted. I’ve never seen her this tired.
She had an easy summer; the hardest day any of us had was walking to and from the drive-through dairy for ice cream.
Her first two days of kindergarten were fine. After that, she’s come home with tears, near tears, talking about tears she had in class, or quite grumpy about not getting ice cream or a play date.
She won’t hold my hand at the mall, saying in a shrill voice, “I’m not little! I’m not little!” She tried to pull out of my hand on the sidewalk too, until a big Harley revved his engine, and she jumped like a cat.
In another week, she’ll fall into her routine. She’ll go to bed early, like she’s supposed to. She’ll learn a couple names at school and get some homework behind her to be proud of herself. Obviously they can’t understand it completely, but I think a part of a child’s mind must sense, “I’m in this for the long haul.”
