When I worked for the government (and I say that like I worked for the CIA or the FBI of some other top-secret organization, when in actuality, I was just a puny contract worker sitting at a desk writing goofy computer code), it took me months and months to get used to all of the abbreviations and acronyms.  Seriously…if the government can shorten something by even one letter, it will do it.  And if it confuses people in the process?  Even better.  Gracie is apparently getting ready for a career in government work.  When she was writing about her very first day of first grade, she wrote 1G.  Every time.

Yep, my baby started first grade on Monday and I swear, I’m having more trouble with this year than last year.  Tears have welled up in my eyes repeatedly over the last three days.  So far, it seems like the leap from kindergarten to first grade is a lot bigger than the leap from preschool to kindergarten. Yes, last year brought her to a new (larger) school and yes, she did go all day instead of just the few hours that she went for preschool.  But, in kindergarten, she still spent a good bit of her time simply playing.  Her kindergarten classroom was filled with toys and all kinds of things for little children to play with.  Her first grade classroom?  Well, it looks a lot like a classroom…there aren’t any toys, but lots and lots of books (and even some microscopes).  As far as classrooms go, it looks awesome, but part of me wishes it looked more like a playroom instead of an uber-cool classroom! This year, the children have desks instead of community tables…that was a bit of a shock to me.  I knew that someday she’d have a real desk at school, but I expected that to happen sometime around her sophomore year of college .  And, judging from the paperwork that we got home this week, her class work (and homework) is going to be a good bit more intense.  It’s a brave, new world out there – both for me and her. 

Here’s what she had to say about her first day:

If you need a translation, here it is:

(That’s Abigail and Gracie written in pseudo-cursive at the top…no she isn’t learning to write in cursive…she just thinks it’s cool…I think it’s part of her cousin hero-worship thing…they’re writing in cursive, so she wants to too). 

7:00 o’clock this morning at school it was hot!  I like 1G (first grade) it is a little bit bad.  But I think it is cool.  When you get in 1G (first grade) you will like it.  I love it so you will like it too.  But I miss my mommy.  And my daddy.  The end.

And, of course, the obligatory first day of school picture.

She looks thrilled, doesn’t she?  She only allowed Steve & I to walk her to the main doors of the school, not all the way into her classroom.  And we had to persuade her to let us do that.  She certainly didn’t want her picture taken by her goofy mother!  I think this may have been a little bit of “first day bravado” though because by Tuesday, she wanted me to walk her all the way to her classroom.  Which, being the wonderful self-sacrificing mother that I am, I begrudgingly did.  Yeah, right!  I was thrilled that she asked me to walk her in.  It feels like lately the minutes are flying by and I’ll take any extra time that I can get with my growing-up-faster-than-I-can-imagine-girl….that would be GUFTICIG for all you acronym lovers out there !