This post is technically about the first day of First grade, but I think for the rest of my life, when I think of this day, I will always think about the weekend before this day, so I have to talk about that first..
Saturday late afternoon, we went over to a friends to swim. The kids were having so much fun, playing water balloon games and horsing around. Adults were having fun talking and laughing. Just about the time I was trying to get Ben set up with a movie to entertain him for a while, Lilly decided she wanted to swing on a porch swing (It was a wooden porch swing hung from a pergola). She was right next to me, not going high or fast. I had my back turned and all of a sudden heard a LOUD SMACK on the concrete. When I turned around, Lilly was screaming, holding her mouth and nose and blood was gushing out of her face. I guess she had slipped out of the swing and wasn't able to catch herself with her hands, so her face broke her fall. We rushed her over to a chair to sit down and try to stop the bleeding. When the bleeding finally slowed down, we could see that her gums were really torn up and one tooth had been pulled down to a different part of her mouth. After talking to the on call dentist and sending her pictures, we decided to wait until the next morning to take care of it. Her face was bruised, and she had a pretty nasty scrape on her chin. I couldn't get over thinking of how lucky we were that it wasn't worse, that she didn't hit the back of her head. I was amazed at how tough she really was that day. I know she was hurting, but she was (mostly) back to acting normally by bed time that night (I slept in there with her anyway, just made me feel better to stay close to her). The next day we went to the on call pediatric dentist, who was AWESOME, and got the one tooth pulled that had been moved out of place. She did great, no crying or complaining or anything!
Fast forward to the next day, the FIRST day of first grade! She was feeling better, but still a little swollen and her smile just wasn't quite as big as it usually is. It was hurting her a bit for a few days to really smile. So these are the best pics I could get (I got more pics of Lilly because we were waiting on Nate to get done going to the bathroom. HA)- Nate was feeling nervous, but more excited than anything!
So off we walked to school, they both were excited and of course they both did awesome! Nate has already gotten a recommendation from his teacher to be a "Bronco Buddy" again this year. They loved their first week and are ready to learn new things and make new buddies!
Every morning before I give them a hug and say bye, we pray "Dear God, thank you for this great day! Please help us to be strong and courageous. Please help us to be kind to others and others to be kind to us. Thank you for always protecting us. In Jesus' name, AMEN."
God, please protect my babies. I know their will be bad days, but I pray that those bad days will mold them into strong, courageous, loving little people. And I hope the good days WAY outweigh the bad days.
And I hope they know no matter what, I'm always on the sidelines cheering them on.
