Lane is fresh outta kindergarten, and as I reflect on the school year, I’m absolutely blown away by her growth in so many ways. She’s blossomed in ten short months, from outward things like her appearance – no more baby face 😢 – to inward things like confidence, integrity, and pride.

Kindergarten brought with it many things I hadn’t been prepared for. Lane is my first, and while she did two years of pre-school, it was only 3 half-days a week. I hadn’t fully processed the idea that she’d be immersed in a classroom environment day in and day out. That she would meet and make relationships with people I didn’t know. That she’d see, hear, and experience things that don’t quite align with the way we do things at home.

It was only a few weeks in that she came home after school one day, looked at me with her huge, innocent brown eyes and declared, “Mama. Joey said THIS *boldly holds up middle finger* is a bad word.” She must have misinterpreted the reason for my expression of disbelief, because she continued, “I KNOW! I told him that was the silliest thing I ever heard because THIS *finger again* isn’t even a word!”

Then, maybe a month later, she approached me with another doozy. With a genuinely confused, almost sad expression, she asked me, “Mama? Is it bad to be skinny?” My heart sank as she shared with me that another little girl had been staring at her and then commented that Lane was “so skinny.” We talked about how that remark made her feel, and I couldn’t believe we were already discussing body image. I asked Lane how she responded to the girl, and was surprised and proud when she told me she answered, “I’m not skinny. I’m fit.”  For the record, we don’t use words like “skinny,” “fat,” or even discuss other people’s (or our own!) body shapes in our house – in fact, Lane actually asked me what “fat” meant last summer at age 5.

Thrown into the mix, of course, were typical reports of kindergarten spats, bumps, bruises, and hurt feelings, coupled with my own heartbreak of not being able to fix everything for her. But overwhelmingly more frequent than all the drama were Lane’s stories of the fun she had each day, her amusing observations about the people and situations she encountered, how she adored her teacher, books she read, and fun games she played in her favorite subject, gym.

I loved hearing the knock-knock jokes her friends would tell her (well, the first time anyway), and watching her teach Lauren all the things she picked up, like how to dab and do the floss dance. 😂 But mostly, I’ve loved watching her evolve. She’s got her own, confident, IDGAF-what-you-think little style (oversized glasses with the lenses popped out and Jordans are her jam), and is very proud of her ability to read second grade books. She doesn’t follow the crowd, writes in a diary that she keeps locked (I honestly don’t know where the key is), and while she’s been craving alone time more and more, she still loves a good snuggle at bedtime.

She is pumped to become a first grader, but first, we’ve got a summer of memories to make. And we plan to enjoy every moment.