First day of school....part 1

Wednesday was "la rentreé", as they say in France.

Back to school!

Where to start.....

Tuesday night (Arissa was at dance), M&M and I drove up to the school to see what teacher they would have and who would be in their classes. Arissa has a new teacher who previously taught Middle School. And there are only two 4th-grade classes, so the odds were pretty good that she would have friends in her class. Indeed, she does! There's hardly any kids in her class that she doesn't know. All her best friends from previous years are in there, and Arissa was ecstatic. And I was relieved.

Mariah hit the jackpot too...her teacher this year is the teacher that Arissa had in Kindergarten! She (the teacher) is the nicest person you could ever hope to meet...she is the kind of teacher that kids need in their early years, so they get hooked on school and love learning. Plus Mariah knows her, and she knows Mariah, so we were all so happy. We had been crossing our fingers since Arissa was in kindergarten that M&M would be lucky enough to be in her class sometime as well. And 2 of Mariah's close friends are also in her class. Success!

Now..... like any preschooler, Mallory has been looking forward to kindergarten for months. She even told Nana "don't call me Mallory anymore. Call me Kindergartner Mallory."

She absolutely COULD NOT WAIT.

And we were so excited for her as well. Seeing her so excited about a new school & class & friends eased the sadness we felt about leaving her wonderful preschool behind.

So there I am scanning the poster in front of the school.....looking, looking, looking at the class lists....who is Mallory's teacher? Who will be in her class?

Where the heck is her name? It wasn't there.

The office was closed, there was nothing we could do. I had to tell Mallory that her name wasn't on the list, and that we'd find out tomorrow what happened.

I felt her terror.

I figured it must be a mistake, and we went on with our night.

Then later a thought crept up: she's registered, right? No, no, she has to be. We filled out the intra-district transfer forms for all 3 girls, the lady @ the district office signed them, I've got the copies they sent us to prove it. We're good to go.

Then about an hour later it hit me. Kind of like as if my brain was still processing the information and trying to solve the case while I went on w/ my regular activites. And then it interrupted my thoughts to advise me of the outcome:

The form I filled out was NOT the registration form.

She's not registered for school.

It's my fault.

I messed up, and I ruined her first day of kindergarten.

Of course there's other forms to be filled out, why didn't I realize that? How could I have been so stupid? I've done this twice before, what is wrong with me?

Well the only thing I could do to console myself was decide that we would all get up at the crack of dawn the next day, get to the office as soon as they opened, and get this fixed. It'll be fine. It has to be or I will never forgive myself!

So we did get up early, we got all ready. New school clothes, new backpacks by the door, new lunchboxes filled and ready to go. First day pictures, posed & taken:

Miss Arissa, a big 4th grader this year:

New school year, new kicks:

My wittle 1st grader:

Sweet baby kindergartner:

(That's a "K" she's making w/ her fingers)

The big one again, happy to be starting 4th grade:

First day hair-do:

Group shot!

The Howard girls:

So back to the story.

We got to the office, greeted the secretary, and explained that there had been an oversight and we needed to register Mallory real quick. And we'd like to do it fast so she can check out her classroom. The lady smiled and handed us IT: A packet of paperwork, and a list of further paperwork that we had to get and turn in before she could start. Proof of residence, birth certificate, vaccination record...

So, in short, she could not start school that day.

I had to hold in my tears and still be happy for my two other sweet first-dayers. But inside I was racked with guilt and wondering, again, how I could be so stupid. I totally ruined this day.

So there's Mallory, in her new school clothes, sparkly headband, holding her new Hannah Montana backpack, and she couldn't go to school.

But I couldn't react too much because we still had to get Arissa & Mariah settled. They did great....I think Arissa might have been a little more nervous than Mariah. Mariah was very confident and matter-of-fact about it, which surprised me a little. Arissa was a little more wary, but she sure was happy to see so many friends in her class. And the fact that her teacher was a woman, that helped as well.

Well once A&M were in their seats and smiling, we marched out of there and set out to get this paperwork fiasco dealt with. I told myself: I can handle this. Mallory will start the next day. Fine. An extra day of summer, I told her! How lucky is that!

We went home and filled out the paperwork. Got the proof of residence. Got the birth certificate (I actually had it and didn't have to go the County Recorder Clerk's office and pay $18 tohave it printed like I usually have to). Got the vaccine record (again: usually have to pay to have printed, but I found Mallory's tucked away). Someone is on my side here; things will be fine. Took it all back to the school. Done!

No, of course not. She was missing 2 of the required vaccinations.

Okay, that can be dealt with. No big deal. I called Kaiser, sweetly explained what I needed. The girl told me they can get her in on tuesday to do the vaccines.

Tuesday? And miss 4 whole days of school? That, I could not handle.

So we drove over to Kaiser. The receptionist told us Kaiser doesn't do vaccines on Wednedays. They just don't do it. We can come back Friday if we want.

Then she must have either seen Mallory's sweet school-loving face, or seen the rage in Jesse's eyes and sensed that we were capable of making a scene, and she called the head nurse. The nurse complained, but then said if we were willing to wait, they would get to us eventually.

Okay, no problem. We'll wait. All day if we have to. Except....I didn't bring my knitting or a book to keep me busy! Damn it. But fine, we'll wait.

They called us after only 20 minutes of waiting. After a total of about 90 minutes, they did a complete physical, gave her a flu shot, and gave her FIVE vaccines. Not two. Five. Mallory didn't like that one bit, we had to hold her down. And she's a strong one, it was hard. Imagine the pain in my heart: I ruined her first day of school, and then held her down while some crazy lady poked her all over with needles. What else?

So we went BACK to the school and turned everything in. We were set, she could start the next day.

Sigh of relief!