Monday, September 12, 2005

Eva's First Day of SCHOOL!

I awoke this morning to a chipper Eva bouncing next to my bed, announcing she was going to school this morning. Now to be fair, last week we had an orientation at the Hummingbird Cooperative, so the place will not be completely new to her. Besides, Marlis the teacher is fabulous. Anyway, we all convened in the kitchen for our ceremonial bowl of oatmeal with bananas. Daddy had out done himself today. There was definitely an extra bounce in Eva's step today - for she was going to school. Eva and I headed back to put on her pre-approved outfit. With our new earlier-than-usual routine, I tried to pick out an out fit ahead of time. I did the same tonight - we'll see how long I can actually keep this up. So I started with the dress, now turned shirt. It is the adorable blue corduroy dress with felt appliqué of cat, house, fence and apple tree. I got in on my trip to Brooklyn almost exactly two years ago. I held it up thinking how cute Eva would be going to school in this dress. At the time it looked so huge as I held it up on the hanger. It was at a discount place near Kara's house. I paid $25 which was way more than I'd ever spent on a dress before. It was on sale from $78. So here I was putting it on my little girl -- well not so little girl. The dress comes way above her knees but still fits everywhere else. It looked nice with a pair of knit pants with a little ruffle on the bottom. Eva was ready to go as soon as I put it on her. Of course, I still had to get Eli and myself dressed.


Finally, it was time to go. Eli left with Daddy to go to Naomi's for an hour. Eva and I had a last minute scramble, gathering all of my cameras - digital, 35mm and digital recorder. We had a nice drive across town. Eva let me know several times that she was ready to see Marlis at school. She was also concerned if Somerset was going to be in attendance. There were a few moments of silence where I let my mind race with thoughts of how much I'll miss her, this was the first day of the rest of her educational life, and what a great school we found for her. We drove through Noe Valley, The Castro, and the Lower Haight.


Art was waiting for us and met us at our parking spot. Art got her out of the car - me video-taping the entire thing. Eva was ready for posing at this point and just plopped herself on the sidewalk ready for a photo and protested loudly when Daddy tried to put her backpack on and move her along. She ended up getting a ride in Daddy's arms to the front of the school. The school is in the ground level of a Victorian building, with a long corridor leading to the side entrance. It seemed extra long today as miss Eva trotted down to the door. She turned and stood there looking at us so sweetly. I took her photo, posed under the hummingbird flag. Inside the warm glow of the room was very inviting. Marlis was busy filling up painting jars while a few of the children were already gathering for their morning activity. Eva found her cubby she chose last week with the picture of the snail. We changed her into her slippers. By the time I finished putting everything in its place, she was over at the table ready to go. We waved goodbye. She looked up at us with a sweet, shy smile but seemed ready to trust those around her. Art and I walked back towards the street. I stopped and looked in on her getting her apron on. She is so wonderful. I found Eva's little can with her name and got our flyer left for us. Art was a bit teary eyed. Eva had come up to him and hugged him and said, "Bye bye Daddy." I'm so proud of her.


When I got to Naomi's house, I called Beth to see how she was doing. Peter answered the phone, they'd just left. Beth said, the girls were very happy to see one another. They compared their slippers that were from the same designer on Valencia Street. Eva told Beth, proudly, that her mom and dad had left her already. Beth said she really seemed good. The girls painted for while and then got up to go and play. Somerset took off her apron and turned to Eva and said, "you need to take off your apron," and assisted her and then off they went in to the other room.

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