The Girl with the Owl Backpack

On Monday, Hannah had her first day of JK. The thought of putting her on a bus all by herself and then leaving her to navigate school life without her parents by her side was enough to twist my heart into painful  knots. She's tall for her age, but she's still so small. Thankfully, Scott was the one to drop her off at the bus stop and watch that big, yellow monster carry her away. I was already at work, trying not to look at the clock or to imagine what was going on in her little mind. As it turned out, I underestimated my beautiful daughter.

The bus brought her to the school (where she had been once before, with her dad, to visit her classroom). She stepped off the bus and looked around. Not sure where to go, she followed "The Girl with the Owl Backpack" to the big-kids' side of the school, where she entered the building brimming with... what? I imagine terror, confusion, a sense of betrayal - all kinds of unspecified horrors. But, no. According to Hannah, she wasn't scared at all. Or worried. After all, she had noticed (her word) that her classroom door had owls on it, so naturally she would follow the girl with the owl backpack. This girl, for the record, who has no name, apparently asked Hannah to be her friend and Hannah agreed. Lost? Heck, no. She was making friends!

And then her teacher found her and safely escorted her to the fold of other JK students where she spent the day happily. Her only complaint: "I don't like the feel of the story-time carpet. It's itchy."

Tomorrow will be her second day. I'm sure that seeing her off on the bus might be marginally easier for Scott; imagining her in the cavernous school will be less intimidating for me; and with time our general parental anxiety about our baby in school will lessen. As for Hannah, she will no doubt once again be more composed than either of her parents.