Not sure if I'm really ready for this

After counting down all summer, a new school year is about to begin.

Shelby is about to be a first grader.

We met her teacher today.

Mrs. Caudill is her name.

She seems very pleasant but then they all do at first, right?

I have always considered Pre-K and Kindergarten to be like preschool. I mean it's school but not SCHOOL. I hope that makes sense. But once one reaches first grade it's the real thing. That's when you get real letter grades, no more naptimes, and you begin to do real math.

Being a parent, this a huge milestone to conquer.

The changes I have seen in Shelby are becoming more obvious everyday. I mean, she's becoming interested in BIG kid stuff.

High School Musical.

Hannah Montana.

What kind of music she wants to listen to.

What earrings she's going to where today.

Picking out her clothes by herself.

I can't even begin to think what my parents went through. When they realized that this person that had needed them for everything up until this point pretty much changed in the blink of an eye.

If this is how I'm feeling now, what's it going to be like in just a few years when she's ten and going to sleepovers?

I'm really hoping that I can be the mom that she can come to. To talk, go shopping, be her friend but not cross that fine line and forget that I'm her mother first and foremost.

Ok.

This got a little deeper than I wanted it to.

Here's a couple of pictures of her classroom.

I think the room is still in rough draft.

There should be better pictures on the first day of school.

Until then...