Christmas in August

The girl was ecstatic, tucked in her bed,
While visions of kinder school danced in her head.

Tomorrow is Abigail's first day of school, and she is more excited than she would be on Christmas Eve. At 7:15, 15 minutes prior to her normal bedtime, I started getting her ready for bed, anticipating that excitement would keep her up a little late.

We talked about her name tag that was in her new backpack. We talked about what shirt she'd like to wear with her new jeans tomorrow. She even tried the clothes on to make sure she was happy with how she would look. We talked about what would happen in the morning before we walked down to the school. We talked about how she would go to school Monday through Wednesday of this week, have Thursday off, then go in on Friday for testing.

We read some Ramona. We turned off the light.
I scratched her back, and told her goodnight.

Shortly after 8, she was downstairs, admitting she was too excited and couldn't sleep. Her daddy took her back upstairs, read her another story, and said goodnight. At 8:40, she was back down again.... peeking from the kitchen this time, but i heard the floorboards creak as she had lifted herself from the bed, and saw her hair wisp quickly around the corner, as i stared for her. This time, she was crying that she couldn't sleep because she was thinking about the next time she'd need a shot. Good grief. I let her lay with me on the couch until she fell asleep at 9, then her daddy carried her up into bed.

First day of school. It is an exciting thing. I can't much blame her, and I wonder how much sleep I myself will get tonight.

... and though I have utmost confidence, I am giving myself a bit of latitude. Misting up is completely acceptable on baby girl's first day. Overflowing with tears however, is completely off limits for this self respecting kinder-mommy. I think I can pull this off. Let's see that reader confidence... who's with me!?