First Day Of School

Yesterday was Annabel's first day of school. Overall, I think it went swimmingly.

We had been to the school the day before for a family social event, so the place wasn't overwhelmingly new to her, which was nice. She had also visited the classroom on Monday for an hour so she knew her teacher's face and those of a few classmates.

We took pictures at home in the morning, and then headed over to the school at about 7:45 (school starts at 8:15). We walked through the school together as a family while we waited for the classroom doors to open at 8:00. We checked out the library and Annabel was excited to see so many books. She liked the idea that she could come read them when she wanted. And the librarian was just perfect:

"You get to come here twice a week with your teacher and pick out anything you want!" she said.

Parents and kids started to collect in front of the classroom at about 8:00 and then there were about 15 minutes of awkwardness while the parents milled around the classroom trying to let the kids get acclimated and the kids tried to figure out what to do.

Annabel got a piece of paper and started coloring. Several students followed.

Then the teacher hit play on a tape recorder (yes, a tape recorder!) and a slightly tinny version of "Good Day Sunshine" punched out. Annabel's head went up in recognition. She stood up and walked over to the carpet and sat down. A few other kids did the same. She was one of the first on the carpet. Reading it now, it sound like a scene from the Manchurian candidate. The teacher was delighted.

"You remembered! You remembered!" she exclaimed. Clearly she had gone over this with them the day before.

Annabel was clearly proud to be one of the ones who remembered. Then all the other kids made their way to the carpet. Annabel started to look around for us, recognizing that now was when the parents were to leave. She got a little anxious when she saw us all the way across the room from here.

"I want a hug." she said to Kristin and me. We made our way over and hugged her much to her relief. (I actually managed to catch Kristin's hug on film (picture below). The other parents all did the same and we were off.


We picked her up 3 hours later and she bounced out of the room and seemed generally happy with the way things went. She was very happy about an apple that she was holding. There is a big bowl of them in the hall, free to anyone who wants one. She had been looking forward to that since she first heard about it earlier in the summer.

"I got an apple!" she said happily as I walked up.

New Shoes

Annabel got some new shoes today. She walked into the house and proudly marched over to me with them on her feet. I looked at them.

"Are those new shoes?" I asked.

"See? These have a C-Strap." She said.

"Whats a C-Strap?" I aked.
"It's like laces, but I can do it myself."

And she showed me. This is the shoe, and indeed it is just like laces, but the laces cinch together with a single Velcro strap.

I gave an impressed look and nodded in approval. "Wow." I said.

Then she launched into a commercial, clearly one she had heard frequently enough to remember.

"With these cool shoes, you can kiss laces goodbye!" She said, with a kind of announcer tone in her voice.

"Did you hear that on TV?" I asked.
"Do you know what?" She asked.
"No, what?"
"I did, but you know what?" She asked.
"No, What?"
"They were a different color on TV. They were orange, but these are better because they are pink and blue."

"Well those seem like great shoes". I said.

"They are."

I think she was happy about them all day long.