Kindergarten.....

Today H started kindergarten. A big day. A milestone. Another one he missed. Another one where he was missed. It was bittersweet. When she woke up this morning, and padded down the hall, I looked at her and said "Good Morning, Kindergartner!" Her whole face lit up and she got a big smile. I made her breakfast and she picked out her outfit. Head to toe purple of course. Purple bow in her hair, purple shirt, purple skirt and purple sandals. She also added a tiara, but I convinced her to leave it at home. We dropped E off with T and went to the first day. I brought the video camera, and taped her getting out of the car, and going to her classroom. She was a little nervous until she saw her preschool teacher waiting to wish her well. I could see the nervousness melt away and she danced to her classroom. She did a great job. She colored, played blocks, sorted, listened to stories, went on a scavenger hunt and played at recess. I taped her. I taped her talking to her daddy, telling him the things she was doing and showing him the pictures she drew. She never said a word about him not being there, even in the presence of all those other daddies their for their children's first day. He was looking forward to this day. He deserves to have this day. When the children went out to recess, the teacher gave us a little orientation. Every time she mentioned the "dads" I felt a little pang. I could feel the tears behind my eyes. When the day was over, I told her how proud I was of her, and offered to get her a treat. She smiled that impish smile and said "Ice Cream!' Ice cream it was. We went to Shuberts and she picked chocolate. We sat on the bench out front and played "I spy" while we had a cone. She was so happy. We ran some errands and went to pick up E. We had dinner out with some visiting family, it was nice. It was a good day. A full day. The girls were excited, and busy. We came home for baths and bed. We picked out our clothes for tomorrow and unpacked her backpack from today. She plucked her drawing from my hands and said "I am going to take this to Daddy because he misses us!" I know he does. And we miss him.