The first day of school...

Wow, 5th grade. Already? Really? Crazy.

Where did the time go? Am I really that old? Are you really the same little baby girl that I used to kiss your toes and smell your hair and cuddle with like a little dolly? Yes you are but you are a young woman now. Wow. Again, crazy.
We went to the school this morning to drop the girls off for the first day. I went to Darian's class and hung out for a while. Once again I was the youngest mom and the kids were much easier to talk to than the grown ups, but there is no surprise there. That always happens.

Her class this year is 6th, 7th and 8th. She is the only 5th grader but she looks as old as the oldest kids. It works well because she doesn't stand out as much in this group and I think that makes her feel less awkward. We walked by a 4-5 class and she commented on how all of the kids are barely as tall as her shoulder. This new class they are all the same size. She likes that.

As we walked through the hall several kids stopped to tell me I had really cool hair. Darian kept doing that whole, "That's my mom!" thing that she does. She is proud of me. Awwww! But when I tried to hug her goodbye in front of her friends she gave me the stink eye. Oh well, I guess we don't do that in 5th grade. Oops! I know better now.

It was kind of interesting for me to see the little boys this year. This is the first class she has been in where it feels like the boys took as much time getting ready this morning as the girls did. They had little Hot Topic outfits and dyed black hair. Seriously, mini hipsters! It was totally cracking me up!
But don't judge a book by its cover, they open their mouths and they are the same sweet adorable kids as last year, they are just mimicking the clothing style of their favorite bands. Their first love is still Manga and Pop Rock, so I am not worried.

Then there was the 8th grade girl who spent a lot of time pouting and posing and then glancing around to see if anyone noticed. She had her Anarchy patch pinned to the leg of her Banana Republic jeans and kept flipping her long straight hair while trying to look somewhat rebellious putting her feet on the chair and trying to participate in the opening "Introduce Yourself" song game as little as humanly possible. Oh yeah, her hormones have kicked in. No one missed how she lit up when the head to toe mini hipster boy walked in. She looked even less thrilled when he chose to sit next to my daughter. Uh-oh. Danger Will Robinson! Danger! It's a right of passage.

I am interested to see how this year shakes out. I am not afraid, my girl can hold her own, she knows how to deal with boys with crushes and with mean girls. No sweat! She was a little nervous but chatted easily with all of the kids as they came in the room. This will be a good year.