The first day of school

Yesterday was the big day - both my hooligans headed back to school. C is now a second grader this year (I am having trouble grappling with this whole growing up thing he is doing) and K headed off to Early 5's, which I think is just a weird way of saying Pre-K.

C woke up early and was counting down the minutes until his first day of school would begin. I am more happy than I can tell you that he was so excited to head back to school. I was a little nervous for K who was switching schools this year & wouldn't know anyone in her class. But, I figured once she got there, she'd come out of her shell a bit & make some new friends.

We had our breakfast and headed upstairs to get dressed for the day. C got ready to go at the speed of light. He was dressed, had his teeth brushed, face washed and was wearing his shoes and backpack 20 minutes before we had to leave the house. Ahh...it's nice having a boy.

K was an altogether different story. I was looking forward to having her in uniform this year. I really thought it was going to simplify our morning routine. The options are really limited, so I figured all of our morning clothing battles/negotiations would be a thing of the past. Umm..not so much.

At the parochial school my children attend, girls can wear navy shorts, plaid jumpers, plaid skirts, navy skorts or navy pants. For early back to school, I eliminated a couple of the options above & only got her two pair of shorts, two navy skorts and two plaid jumpers. I figured we had our bases covered without going overboard.

When I asked her the evening before what she wanted to wear to school, she replied very excitedly "I want to wear my plaid jumper dress!" But when it came time for her to actually get dressed she wouldn't commit. She wanted to see all of her options once again.

So, I got out a pair of shorts, a skort and a jumper for her to choose from. After a prolonged internal debate followed by a quick game of eenie, meenie, miney, mo she decided to go with the navy shorts. So I (naively) put away all of the other options & we got her dressed for school. When she saw that her brother had picked out the same outfit, she was at first excited, and then her brow became furrowed.

"I look like a boy." she declared after looking at herself in the bathroom mirror.

"No you don't." I replied "You look like a girl wearing shorts & a blue shirt."

I then tried a couple of what I thought were other reassuring phrases, but it was a no go. We were heading back to the room for a change of clothes.

After a second round of internal debate and another game of eenie, meenie, miney, mo she picked the navy skort. But....as soon as she pulled it on, she changed her mind yet again and decided that the plaid jumper dress was really the way to go for the first day of school.

And so, she changed her clothes again. Thankfully, at that point we were out of options (How happy was I that I decided not to get the pants or the plaid skirt! We would have been late for school if she had made 2 more outfit changes.)

Somehow getting ready on our first day in uniform was taking longer than the days where she had been free to wear almost anything in her closet. How did that happen?

As we headed downstairs, she informed that she had it all figured out now...

"Mama, I have an idea. Today I'll wear my jumper dress, then the next day I'll wear my skort and then the day after that I'll wear my shorts. Then I'll just keep switching like that everyday. How does that sound Mama?"

It sounded good to me. But then so did the whole idea of uniforms, so what did I know?

Day two was today, and true to her new schedule she picked the skort.

I haven't have the heart yet to tell her that tomorrow is picture day. No uniform. I've picked out an outfit for her to wear,but it'll be a miracle if she actually wears what I've laid out for her without some serious debate.

And frankly, I'm scared to even contemplate her junior high years when her uniform options expand to include khaki bottoms too. We'll have to start getting her geared up for school about a week in advance so she can formulate a plan that includes khaki.