LuLu's First Day of School

[Note: for far too long I've refered to my youngest daughter here as "middle child', a term that's a little demeaning and soon to be innacurate. She's got a ton of nicknames in real life (Livvie Lue, Lu, LuLu etc), but LuLu  and Livvie Luseems to flow naturally when I write about her, so that's what I'm going to go with from now on]

This year marked LuLu's first year in school, a proud member of her K-3 class.

We agreed to send her to the same otherwise all African American school that YaYa had attended two years ago. We've since moved YaYa to another Catholic school, but the combination of a full day K3 program and strong academics made the trip across town worth it.

There was something different sending Livvie Lu out the door. It was certainly just as big a milestone and we love her just as much, but with two years of school under our belt we faced the day with more confidence. And as much as YaYa looked forward to school and wanted to go, LuLu's had two years of peer presure to make the trip a goal of hers.

And let me tell you, she looked darling:

Soon it came time to pack the kids up and hit the road. My apologies to Parker for the mis-sized pic.

The room was the same, the teacher different.

We stayed for a minute or two to let her get accustomed to the place, then made our goodbyes.

No tears, not from LuLu. And none from me for once.

But another one of my babies spreading her wings. I only get to take her to school once a week, on Wednesday's (the rest of the week the Mrs takes her and I take YaYa, as her school is closer to work) but I look forward to that time with her. And every day she comes running up to me after work with a big hug.

So far school's been a success (knock on wood). She even won a free JC Penney portrait at a parent/child night.

Oh, and her first progress report came in: she got good marks ('most of the time') in everything but 'dresses self' (that was a 'working on it'). In the academic progress area she can say the alphabet, recognizes letters, sounds, and shapes, can count to 13 and has a 'more than 3 minute' attention span.

And let me tell you, that girl knows her shapes almost better than I do. And not just squares and circles like my time in kindergarten. We're talking ovals, cylinders, triangles, diamonds and hearts.

Under teacher comments the following appeared: "LuLu is a excellent student. Her academics are great. She is a leader in the clasroom and enjoys helping others. She needs to work on talking out in class. She is a joy to have in my class everyday"

Good job LuLu!