We survived!

Thank goodness it's Friday!!! We have officially survived the first week of kindergarten!
It was a little iffy as to the probability that we would all come away from this week with our sanity still in existence.
The first day, I was unaware of "the pick up" rules. Where you can and cannot drive, and the fact that, if you say you will pick up your child, you have to physically enter the kindergarten area, and pick up your child. Me, getting out Ash and Pey, after finding a parking spot, because I cannot drive into the bus loop, which is ever so conveniently right off the kindergarten door, and walking to go and get Lynn... nah. I had to get schooled by Christie. We made arrangements for her kids to stop at the kindergarten door and snatch Lynn, walk out the catwalk, where I would be waiting. It's great to have such good friends with such awesome kids who are willing to help this first time wreck of a mom!
So, back to "the pick up"... I saw that I couldn't drive down to the kindergarten door, where I told her to meet me, and started to hunt for a spot to park to go and get her. Just then, I see her and her teacher walking around to the front of the school. I honk my horn and wave to let them know that I really am there, get out of the car to go and get her. Lynn was a little upset I could tell. She tried to bolt out into the street to get to me only to have her teacher, who was trying to keep her from getting squished, hold her back. I got across and got her. On our little walk back to the car, I asked her, "How was your first day?" with all the excitement I could exude. She replied sobbing, "It was just awful!"
On the ride home, I asked her what made it awful. She told me that her teacher had gotten upset with her because Lynn was trying to leave when school ended to find me. She told Lynn that she couldn't leave, but the rest of the kids were gone, and she was only trying to follow my instructions. She tried to leave again, and her teacher got a little more stern. That's when she decided to walk with Lynn. So we had a talk about how her teacher has rules that she has to obey, just like Lynn does. We figured out our new pick-up plan, and prayed that the next day would be better.
The next day, we had the pep talk about listening to the rules, doing what we are asked. I went into her class to let her teacher know of our new pick up plan, so we wouldn't have any hurt five-year old feelings.. she then told Lynn to go out to the covered area and wait for class to start, "we still have 15 more minutes..." What!? 15 minutes? It is 11:05, and class starts today at 11:10... where did she get 15 minutes? Go out to the covered area to find more kids and parents waiting... I didn't even know that they were supposed to wait out there, I assumed she'd go into the school, into her classroom, or at least wait in the hallway... this is all weird.
I waited on the other side of the catwalk after school, waiting with as much patience as I could. I was near tears, so excited to see her, it has been harder than I thought having her gone, and hoping that her day was better. As soon as I saw her little head bobbing alongside Hailey, I almost burst into tears! She got to the car, and out came my question. Her answer, "It was terrible." She got in trouble, apparently.
Now you have to understand, I have a sensitive little girl here. A stern look will make her feel like she has killed the beloved family pet. A stern voice will send her running for her life. She is my delicate flower. So to get all of the information out of her is difficult at best. It comes out the way a five-year old understands the world, how she perceives it.
So when I ask her to tell me what she got in trouble for, she tells me that they were in the library, listening to a story, and she went underneath her chair and "the teacher helper" said, now this is good, "Sit up and act like a five year old!" She said that "the teacher helper" said it "very rudely". It made her cry. Her teacher also said "no, no.." and that upset her. But come to find out it was because she was writing a's and h's instead of the c's she was supposed to be writing.
We again, talked about rules. It is a rule to sit in your chair when you are in the library. We are also supposed to do what the teacher asks of us. If she says to draw a square, draw a square not a heart... and so on, and so forth...
I did ask her, "Lynn, how is a five-year old supposed to act?"
She shrugged her shoulders. I told her that no one, has the right to talk to a child like that.
That's what infuriates me the most. There is an adult, who is in a classroom full of kindergartners on their second day of school ever, and they are going to talk like that? They need a reality check. I told Lynn to let me know whenever that "teacher helper" was in her class again. I'll let her have it if she thinks she can be that way to poor, helpless kids. Seriously, what kind of sense does that make? Like there is a set standard for how a five-year old should act?!
Anywhoo...
Yesterday was much better. Lynn told me how she tried extra hard to obey the rules. And today was even better.
I, however, am a little in shock, a little depressed. Where has my easy-going life gone? No sleeping in, and doing whatever needs to be done, whenever it works out. Every day has a schedule, which isn't bad, but having the outside world tell us when to do things and how to do them is hard on me. I am praying for the school day to go by fast, and I am not the one going to school! I miss her. I have been cleaning my heart out to distract myself while she is gone.
Ash starts next week, we went to her pre-school open house today. She is so excited. But to me, there's just one more schedule, one more little one gone, out of my control...
So on to my only one not leaving me... Pey hasn't been sleeping through the night, and when Ash went through this phase, it was because she wasn't getting enough to eat. So I have been trying to be better about cereal and even trying to introduce new foods to her. The first night, rice cereal, which she has loved, and applesauce. She totally gagged on both. It was quite funny, but she really didn't care for it. I know, try try try again... the next night, I attempted oatmeal and some bananas. Same reaction. It really is funny, the expression she makes... but she ended-up gagging till she spit up most of what she had eaten. Then she woke up in the night, hungry. I think the only part of this whole routine she likes is the bath. I'll put her in the kitchen sink or the tub and she loves it! I just need to keep on trying. I just can't take a picky eater... yet one more person's schedule...
All of these schedules, getting kids to bed on time, making sure things get done, I am feeling like I will never scrap again, and wonder when Mer and I will even have time for just us.
And this will be life, for a couple of decades +...