Safety Girl in a Safety Town

BIG goings on for my going-to-kindergarten-this-fall little girl.

This week & next – she has SAFETY TOWN, where she learns about, well, safety.

I guess stuff like stranger danger, bus rules, why you need to wear a helmet while riding your bike, etc.

So tonight, after her inaugural “pre-jazz/hip-hop” class (heaven help me if the teacher actually showed her some of the “moves” Mallory showed me tonight), we had her first night of Safety Town.

Carson & I dropped her off. She was, of course, VERY shy and was trying to hide behind me. Carson, on the other hand (when the teacher asked Mallory if she wanted to pull up a chair and color) said “yesh” and reached for the crayons. Atta boy.

I quickly gave her a kiss goodbye and Carson & I slipped out the door. I’d talked it up about how this was important for kindergarten, yada yada, so she knew she had to stay, but I knew I had to get out of there before I tucked her under my arm and ran for the door.

I then went to the grocery store with only one kid. Can you say HEAVEN? I didn’t have to correct Carson ONCE during the whole process. It was A-MAZING. And relaxing. I only had to get two things, but I almost headed to the mall and pressed my luck because it was so fun to only have one kid.

I will say my kids are pretty good. But they feed off each other BIG TIME and Mallory likes to get a little really bossy, and Carson & I take exception to that. There is one boss around here and it’s ME. So when we are traveling through Target and they kids start running and I tell them to stop, Mallory stops (good) and tries to horse collar tackle Carson to stop him (bad) and then he gets away and runs more. It’s pretty fun. Want to go to Target with me?

After the grocery store, Carson & I picked up dog poop and then I put him to bed. We snuggled a little longer than normal because I didn’t have to hurry to get Mallory ready for bed.

My super cali fragilistic expialidocious neighbor Amy came to sit on my couch (and make sure Carson didn’t climb out of his crib) so I could fetch my daughter.

I was soooo afraid of what I’d find when I got to Safety Town. I was nervous that Mallory would come to the door with a red blotchy face from crying.

I will say that both of my kids are pretty go with the flow – new environments don’t really freak them out – but new people tend to. Even when we go places and see people they should know, Mallory gets shy and nervous. I think this has to do with her going to the same daycare/preschool for every day of her life so far. She is one of the Queen Bees in her school (not just her class, but her school) and knows EVERYONE. To say I am not terrified for her going into this new experience that will be kindergarten would be a gross understatement. It is one of the things that freaks me out the most about starting her at 4. But when I think of what I would be “protecting” her from if we waited a year (a bunch of new people/teachers) – I realize that it won’t be better waiting a year since there will still be new people and new teachers and she’ll have had a whole ‘nother year of being Queen Bee at her current school.

I was fifth in line to pick up my kid. When they called her name and she came around the corner from the other classroom, my heart melted a little lot. She was skipping and had a huge “I’m so happy but I’m trying to not smile” grin on her face.

She immediately reached up for my hand and told me all about the policeman and his car and don’t go with strangers and trees and windows and look mom I made a policeman puppet! and we got tattoos and one girl didn’t want hers so she gave it to me so I have two so I can give one to Carson.

I will admit I was confused about the “trees & windows” thing. But she clarified that the policeman told them not to stick their arms out of windows because they will get their arms broked (sic) by a tree or a sign. I wasn’t aware that this was a big threat – since if your kid is properly buckled in a seatbelt/carseat – can they really reach their arms out of a car that much to get it chopped off by a sign? And who is driving this vehicle? But I digress.

I love that she loved it.

But it makes me sad. How on God’s green earth is my baby girl getting so big?