Isabelle had a great Kindergarten year of school at Creekside Forest Elementary School. It started off a little shaky, enrolling her in her first ever formal education without even having a home purchased in the district, but after we got our feet wet and our boxes unpacked, Belle really settled into the school routine and thrived, like we knew she would.
We were blessed with an amazing teacher and truly by the end of the year called Mrs. Grimes not only a teacher but a family friend. She saw a lot of potential in Isabelle and told Ben and I at our first teacher conference that we were going to push her and see just how far she could grow. And grow she did. She not only passed off the Kindergarten sight words, but the 1st and 2nd grade words as well and ended the year at the very top of the class for reading. She excelled in writing, science and math as well but even more importantly grew socially 100-fold. Isabelle met two very best friends in her class and the threesome were rarely seen apart after the first week or so of school. Isabelle, Emily and Paloma were three peas in a pod and we were so lucky to find such genuine friends so quick in our new neighborhood and school. Both girls just so happened to have wonderful moms and baby sisters as well and most days after school you could find all of us in a train scootering, strollering and walking home.
I will admit that I was worried when after driving from San Antonio to Houston specifically to attend the Kindergarten Teddy Bear Tea a week or so before school started, and Belle and I both left crying all the way home, that we could be in for a really long school year. And it would not be truthful to say that Jelly was excited to go to school every day, but we somehow survived. Some mornings she begged to stay home and play with Olivia and other mornings she said she would rather just go to Target with me and eat popcorn, but for the most part Isabelle was a trooper and put in the long hours day after day. She was in the
Buzz Into Reading Club every semester and Mrs. Grimes told me that she asked Isabelle more than once to help her by befriending someone at recess or by inviting someone new to play at centers, so her dad and I couldn't be more proud. We knew Isabelle was smart from her first days and would thrive in academics and she proved us right and was a friend to all she came in contact with too.
Sadly the last week of school was a giant and painful mess, but somehow we muddled through and survived to tell the tale. Everything is more fun in Kindergarten, so they spent the last 5 days of school doing something special each day. They had an Alphabet parade around the school where Belle played the important part of the letter C. They had a water day outside where they played in shaving cream, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and gallons and gallons of water. They spent an entire day outside at field day playing games, having races, eating popcicles and dripping with sweat. They had a class Luau complete with a limbo and leis and of course they had the grand finale Kindergarten program where they sang songs and made all of their parents cry. So, why was it such a mess??? We were all 4 deathly ill with a violent stomach bug and could barely lift our heads. It began with Belle and 36 hours later when she still couldn't hold anything down and had been taking doctor given zofram, I began with the bug. Just as I finally crashed into bed the following night with my head still spinning, Ben met me in the bathroom with his head in the toilet. And sadly the baby of the family had it last filling her bed and her parents with vomit more than once. It was UGLY but what were we to do? Miss the last week of Kindergarten activities?? So Isabelle marched in the parade slowly still only holding down a cracker and then left the school again immediately, I sat on the curb of the school smiling to everyone and trying to act like I was "normal," Ben stood in the back of the school program and snuck out the door to vomit in the parking lot and Olivia cried and cried and needed to be at home in bed rather than at another school event. It took us over a week to have any interest in eating again and looking back I can't believe we managed to participate in all of those events with such a violent bug. (I'm not looking back and laughing yet.)
Somehow our baby has grown up and is smart, sweet, confident, brave and is feeling pretty proud of herself and all that she has learned. We will soon gear up again for a busy school year and face 1st grade head on a little more prepared and this time with a bedroom we call home on the first night of school...but for now we are going to enjoy the lazy days of summer and pretend that Isabelle is still little Jelly and kiss and hug and enjoy every moment she has at home.
