You know what’s weird? Having a kindergartner. I mean, it’s not weird, per say. Rylee is 5 years old. I guess it’s just more weird to think about. When Andy & I talked about having kids, all the way through giving birth to Rylee, I never really thought past the baby stage.

Now here I am, the mom of a kindergartner.

See? Weird.

Kindergarten has been met with both excitement and apprehension.

Rylee’s first day of kindergarten (and only day the entire week) was last Tuesday. It was more of an introductory “get to know your teacher/tour the school day”. Andy was able to go in to work a little late so he could be there when we dropped her off. Then I took the day off so I could pick her up and spend the rest of the day with her. Afterward, we went out to lunch then ran a few errands.

Today was her first “real” day of school. Her whole class will be there. She rode the bus.

She rode the bus.

Over the course of the last week or so whenever the bus ride was brought up she’d act shy, scared, timid, etc. We’d talk through it, calm her uneasiness and move on. Last night she was particularly nervous.

But this morning? This morning was a different story. She was ready to go early. She didn’t want to miss the bus! We were down at the end of our driveway with 10 minutes to spare. Once our neighbors were at the bus stop she hopped out of the car and sat with them. I knew she would be fine.

One of our neighbors is a first grader and she & Rylee are good friends. They already had plans to sit next to each other on the bus.

Pretty soon the bus came, she looked back and waved and climbed on board.

As we had previously planned, I followed the bus about halfway to school. When it made the turn off the main road to pickup more kids, I went to the school and waited for her.

The bus pulled in about 25 minutes later. She walked off the bus, a smile on her face. She saw me, seemed surprised, said “Oh hi mom!” gave me a hug then turned to head into school.

And just like that, we have a kindergartner, folks.