Yup, you guessed it. I took a leave from work on Sofia’s first day of school - June 15. I know, this is long overdue, but I just had to ‘document’ this wonderful experience!
The works.I helped her dress up in her cute uniform (she wore peach that day), prepared and packed her baon (ham sandwich with lettuce and apple juice), tied her hair into ponytails, and I made sure she has all the things she would need in school - hand sanitizer, tissue, handkerchief, and her nametag. I couldn’t really tell if she was excited with the whole 'first day' thing because she was 'cool' about me being so 'OC' and she just went with the flow of things that morning. I, on the other hand, was excited and anxious at the same time.
The school bus.Then I rode the school bus with her - as much as we want to send her to and pick her up from school every single day, we can’t at this point in time since Danny and I both work - and prepped her that she would be riding the bus ‘without Mommy’ starting the next day because Mommy has to go to work. She slept on my shoulder while the bus fetched all the other students on the way to school. I wondered how’s it going to be on the next day? There will be no more shoulder for her to sleep on when she gets sleepy. Then I thought (and hoped) she’d make lots of friends in the bus soon.
The stage mommy.We arrived at school 10 minutes early. Parents are not allowed to go beyond the fence, so I kissed her and told her that I’m going to be back to pick her up. A lady ushered her to sit with her classmates in the ‘assembly hall’ while they wait for the teachers to bring them to their classrooms. Sofia was so behaved! She was just looking around and from time to time, was checking to see if I am still outside watching her - she was not smiling every time our eyes met, but her eyes were like telling me (and maybe herself) “I can do this!” Tough girl. I would have left sooner had I not saw her checking on me, but I stayed because I thought she might panic if she turns and doesn't see me among the crowd of parents outside the fence. I left only when the teachers ushered Sofia and all the kids into their classrooms. I couldn’t exactly describe how I felt at that moment, but I was glad Sofia was not among those kids who howled and cried and were literally carried by some ladies and were brought to, I heard, the guidance office. Oh well. If that had happened to Sofia, I had probably also cried with her and spent two (2) hours in the guidance office as well. :D
The fetch.I had to pick her up at 2pm. Classes for the first three (3) days of school were shortened to 2 hours, instead of the regular 3 hours. (We fetched Sofia for the first three days of school because the bus is scheduled to fetch Sofia at 3:30 pm every day.) So there I was, standing outside the fence (again) with other excited parents, waiting for the kids as they come out, class after class, to the assembly hall. I saw one parent holding a camera, my cue to grab mine as well, and I took pictures of Sofia’s expressions as soon as I saw her. She was scouting the faces outside the fence and the moment her eyes beamed when she finally saw me, I found myself on the verge of crying (promise!
hehe). (I later learned that when Danny and I fetched Sofia the next day, Danny also felt like crying when he saw Sofia in school.
haha!) It was weird, really. I was anxious because my little girl, for the first time, spent time with unfamiliar faces in an unfamiliar place, with no ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ around, and yet I was happy and proud that she made it through her first real adventure!
So there, on June 15, 2009, Sofia had just made her first big step towards independence. :D Thank God, everything went really well on that first day! Here are some of Sofia’s photos during the first three (3) days of school:
Sofia turned 5 on September 04 and we had a simple celebration at home last Saturday (September 05). She is so crazy about Hannah Montana! - she wants a Hannah cake, Hannah's blonde hair?!, the clothes Hannah/Miley wears, and a guitar! The cake turned out to be easy to find - we bought one from Goldilocks. :D The blonde hair? We bought those washable hair colors/highlights available everywhere and applied just a little amount of color on Sofia's hair just to satisfy her, hehe. For the guitar, I tried to teach her how to play 'The Climb' using my guitar (which is, of course, way too big for her!) but...yeah, maybe next time (she's only 5, come on!). For the attire, well, as you can see in the picture, we weren't really able to pull off a perfect 'Hannah Montana' look for our little girl. I think here she looked more like a little in between Hannah and Miley. Not loud enough. Not simple enough. More like...Sofia. :)
Happy Birthday to me! :) 
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