First Day of School Sadness

Well, it was first day of school around here. Madeleina started 9th grade and I was sorry to drop her off because she's such good company. And I've had a lot of her company lately, what with going with me to Peru and all. So it's sad that I'm sitting in an empty house again. And it was sad--though I was proud--that she didn't need any help from me to go clothes shopping yesterday. "Dad, why don't you just go and have a drink with Dave at Wild WIngs, watch a little football or something and then come back in an hour or so, okay?"
Growing up.
Sierra started school today too: She's in kindergarden now. My daughter-in-law Sara bought her a bunch of nice clothes and I bought her school supplies while Chepa and the girls (Sierra and Alexa) were visiting their grandpa in Michigan for a couple of weeks. And Sierra has been dreaming of this day for as long as she can remember seeing Madeleina heading off to school.
Madeleina and I went over to Chepa's this morning to see her off: She looked so beautiful, so lost.
And then so was Alexa, who was not heading off to school. Chepa called me an hour after school started and I could hear Alexa sobbing in the background. Just sobbing. She's never been without her sister before.
To calm things down we all headed over to Sierra's school to have lunch with her. I got there first, and when Sierra came in to the lunchroom with her class a few minutes later, she hardly looked at me, just went straight to a table and sat with other kids. She didn't even join us when Chepa, Alexa and little Taylor Rain joined me. No siree. She's a big girl and all we might do is embarrass her.
So that was that. Nice that everybody's growing up, but sad that I still get growing pains when they do.