Olivia’s First Day of Kindergarten

A couple years ago when Olivia started Kindergarten I was so ready. She was so ready. We were all ready. I felt like it had taken a lifetime for her to be old enough to go to school. Real school. I was more excited about it than she was. The world was opening up to her and she was going to start finding her way in it.

We took her to school and she wasn’t sad nor was I. I didn’t even get close to tearing up. This was probably more due to showing up about 30 minutes late. Whoops. Cut us some slack, it was our first time ever taking a kid to school.

We drove home and went about our day. It didn’t seem that weird that Olivia was missing. I wondered what she was doing at school, if she was making friends, if she was going to eat something she wasn’t supposed to. All the usual mom worries. Then Kraft came out to grab his coffee and accidentally bumped into my elbow. He said sorry and I responded, “Apology accepting.”

This is what we always say at home. Since Olivia was old enough to talk we taught her to say sorry and if we said sorry to her she was supposed to respond with apology accepted. She always, always, always says “apology accepting.” It’s so dang cute that we just let it go. We didn’t ever correct her. And now we all say it. It’s such an ingrained inside family joke.

I responded with this phrase out of habit but the second after I said it, BAM, cue the waterworks. I slumped down and started sobbing. As happy as I was to send my little bird out of the nest for a bit, I realized I wasn’t going to get to hear what she was saying all day. I was going to miss out on all the funny things she does and says. All day.

On the up side, other people get her sass which I’m happy to pass off