So my oldest is a Kindergartner

So she went to her first day of kindergarten on the 16th. I took her. I walked her to her classroom to make sure she got settled in with her supplies. She gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye and sat at her table.

I retreated through the door and stopped, just outside the doorway, leaning slightly to peek in at her. She looked around for a second, then sat down in her chair, looking around at her new friends and enemies. Then suddenly she turned and spotted me, so I fled. I fled her hallway, and felt the tears well up. Quickly I shoved my sunglasses onto my face as I round a corner, successfully concealing my distress from an approaching teacher. I compose myself as I leave the front doors of the school...but...

as I pass by the front on my way back to my car, I stop at a window, and I have a great angle into her classroom. There she is, my first born...the girl I stayed up all night for when we brought her home from the hospital, putting my finger under her nose every 5 seconds to make sure she was still breathing....no longer spending all of her time with us...we are relics now, people she used to know....

Watching her with her cheek resting in her hand, looking bored, a thick wall of brick separating us, saddened me so much, that the tears no longer welled, they flooded my eyes and poured down my face. As I called my wife to tell her Elizabeth had made it to school okay, I couldn't choke out the words. She told me not to go to work right away, to come back home.....

By the time I was home I was better, just barely. My little girl still worshipped her Daddy when I got home, and she had much to tell me.........

such as this morning when I was taking her to school. She told me of her friend Ty. Ty cried yesterday after school. Ty is Elizabeth's new best friend. They're in the Brownies together now.

Ty cried because some boy first made fun of her socks after school, where the children were outside (supervised) waiting for their parents to pick them up. Then this boy (not a classmate of Elizabeth's) pulled Ty's hair.......then he pulled down her pants.........................................................

okay, so when I was in the 1st grade or so, I can recall lifting up dresses of girls on Wednesday's "dress up day" (I didn't realize "dress up day" was a day to wear nice clothes you see.....) but I was hoping parents had stamped out this type of behavior by now.