Lia's First Day of In-Person Junior High!

Well, the day finally came.  After being out of school for 11 months and four days, Lia finally stepped inside a school hallway today...except this time it was a junior high hallway instead of an elementary school hallway.  Kind of crazy.  I am still trying to process all of this.  Although Lia has grown up and changed so much in the past year, I am still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my princess-loving, little girl is long gone.  Lia definitely acts like a teenager which should make sense to me as she is turning thirteen in five days!  And although she has been attending junior high school online since September, it really didn't feel real until this morning when she was getting ready to actually attend some classes within the walls of her new school.  Since I was never able to walk Lia around this school in advance to help her find all six of her classrooms (which is something that I always had promised her I would do), she was very nervous about going to school which is completely understandable.  In addition to not knowing the layout of her school or where any of her classrooms are located, only six other students from her elementary school are going to this junior high--so it is like she is starting all over again as the new student in town.  Throw in some serious, preteen insecurities and this entire scenario is just destined to be a nerve wracking experience, but Lia kept her cool and even let me take a few pictures of her on the front porch this morning.

My one huge complaint with this entire situation is how little in-person school Lia will be attending for the time being.  She should be attending school in person two, full days a week just like Logan, but due to the high amount of students who chose to come back to in-person school (which is not a shocker) and our governor's ridiculously strict rules about how many students can be together in a classroom at one time, Lia is only allowed to go to school FOUR HALF DAYS EVERY OTHER WEEK!  Yes, that's right, that is two, full days of school every month.  It's a total joke and I really don't see the point in it except to get these students out of the house and to allow them the opportunity to interact with students and teachers in person a few hours a month.  Besides that, there really is no point in her going to school at all and I am just having to accept this reality as yet another disappointment and frustration with our public schools during the pandemic.

Lia standing in front of our door before heading off to school with a big pile of snow left on our porch.  I thought it was strange to have Ella and Logan standing in front of a Valentine's wreath on their first day of school pictures, but standing next to snow takes it to an all new level of weirdness!

A close-up of my tall, grown up 7th grader!

One miracle of all of this is that the students are assigned to attend their four half days a month based on their last name.  Just by luck, Lia's one friend out of the six kids going to her junior high from her elementary school also has a last name that starts with the same letter as ours.  Although Lia and Addy have known each other since preschool and have been friends for 8.5 years, they started to go their own separate ways in about 4th grade.  So, although we still adore Addy and love her family, the girls are not as close as they used to be when they were younger, but we are so grateful that they still have each other at this scary time in their lives!  Since Addy and Lia are both required to walk to school, we decided to give them the chance to go to school and come home together on these four days a month.  Although they will be walking together most days, Addy's mom took the day off work today to drive them there and pick them up.  Here is a picture of Lia getting inside Addy's car before driving away.   

And, they're off!  Addy's mom pulling out of our driveway to head up the hill. I must admit that I had a bit of a hard time this morning.  I honestly feel like Lia is closing the chapter on her childhood and starting a new chapter of her life that will take her all the way to adulthood.  I actually shed a few tears this morning when thinking about it.  I know that Lia is so ready for this next step in her life and it will bring about some wonderful opportunities for her and room for growth and development, but it still doesn't mean that a little part of me is struggling with the fact that my little girl is gone forever.  Sigh.  Thank heavens I still have Ella...