Third Grade

I remember third grade. My best friend who lived in my neighborhood had moved to another town. I was so anxious about my first day back to school without my best friend that my mom actually took the day off work to take me to school. THAT one fact is very profound. She never took off work for me - not if I was sick (my dad took care of me b/c he could get off work easier), not if I had a school program, not if it was "eat lunch with your parents day." That tells me that I must have been pretty upset, nervous wreck, terribly anxious, overly shy. I'm not sure why I would have been so upset because I had other friends (and I was never in the same class as my best friend - we always got different teachers).
I met my new best friend that day. Her mom had brought her to school too because she had just moved to Greeneville from Illinois. We sat at the same pair of desks that day. I even went home with her after school (I would never let Abbie do that if I didn't know the parents).
I remember that boys were starting to get interested in girls. My new best friend caught the eye of many boys. On Valentine's Day, she got a ton of gifts (and I'm not talking about cards). I remember wearing rainbow colored suspenders (like Mork's from Mork & Mindy). I remember talking about "who shot J.R." at school. I remember having a hard time learning how to tell time. I remember really getting into spending the night with my friend and watching her "pirated" cable channels. We still played with dolls then.
Abbie starts third grade tomorrow. I hate that summer has ended. I am a little shocked that I have a third grader. That seems so much more grown up. I'm not really ready for it. I feel a little nervous about tomorrow. I don't really know why. I know that she starts getting real grades this year. Will she do well? Why should I care this early in her school career? I know she has to learn cursive and multiplication this year. Will she catch on quickly or fall behind? She really likes math so I'm not too worried. But she is very precise in her letter writing so I am worried that she will write in cursive too slowly and will miss recess sometimes in order to get caught up.
Will she develop a true best friend this year? It doesn't matter to me one way or the other, but I defiinitely don't want her to feel left out. The good thing is that her school and class is so small that everyone pretty much hangs out together. But I know that girls can be clique-ish, and I saw some of this developing last year.
She already likes her teacher because she is her cheerleading coach. But will they develop a good relationship now that she'll be her homeroom teacher? Will her teacher like me? Will we have good communication?
I just don't remember worrying this much in past years. And I can't say that this is the kind of worry that will keep me awake at night or cause knots in my stomach. But it just keeps nagging in the back of my mind.
Abbie and I have a great relationship. She and Paul do too. I am trying to let her be more independent. Up to now, I have been choosing all clothing purchases and choosing her outfit for the day and choosing her hairstyle. She doesn't mind at all. But this summer, I have been saying, "what would you like to wear today?" or better yet "go get dressed." If she picks something that doesn't match, I might gently make another suggestion or let it go altogether. I went shopping for school clothes and let her pick items out of a catalog ahead of time. Tonight, I showed her the outfit I was thinking of for tomorrow. But she said, "no, I want something more special!" So she chose something new that I had just bought. Then she chose her hair accessories and said I could fix her hair however I wanted.
I really dread the 6 am wake up time tomorrow. I think I'll go set the coffee pot right now.