smells funny

Today - Sophie's first day of "big girl school" (grade 1) - went off without a hitch. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

After the challenges we faced last year with Kindergarten, we were, admittedly, a little worried about how this day would unfold. Sophie appeared to feel quite comfortable with the idea of a new school, new friends and new teachers. I had been asking her for about 5 or 6 days if she was worried about anything and her answer was continually "no, mamma, I feel fine about school". Last night, the final night before the big day, as I was lying beside her, I asked her again "Soph, how are you feeling about tomorrow?".

Her answer was decidedly different this time. Her response was (and I quote) "I'm worried. I'm worried about the smell".

I had to think about this and I paused before responding. The smell? The smell of what? of whom? I could not imagine what she could be thinking about in her incredibly interesting brain. "Soph, what smell are you talking about?" - "The one you you said there was by the office.".

Ahh...of course. The smell by the office. Knowing Sophie and knowing that she does not miss ANYTHING, I tried to remember talking about her new school to someone and rather quickly remembered talking with her grandma about my visit to the school to register Sophie. I had been describing the smell as I entered the school and stood in the lobby. I am sure that Sophie heard me talking about "the smell" and that is what she remembered. What she didn't remember was that I went on talk about how the smell of the school reminded me of all the good things about school. It is that old school smell of old wooden floors, cleaners, chalk, books and children.

I finally responded to Sophie and said "Soph, are you thinking about what mummy was saying to grandma?" "Yes" she replied. "well, lovey, what I was telling grandma is that the smell is a wonderful, good smell and not a bad one". "Oh, really? that's good mamma because I wouldn't want to go there if there was a bad smell".

This is from the same child that didn't want to go to Sunday school when the room at the church was newly painted because she didn't like the new paint colour. It made her feel sick.

Ahhh....I love you Soph and I know you are going to shine in your new school with all of energy!