When do high schoolers act like grade schoolers? Graduation day and registration day! Well, okay, maybe a few game days, too. Today was registration day at my daughter’s high school, and for a moment I caught a glimpse of the playground childishness that goes on in the minds of teens. With squeals of joy, shouts of laughter, and hugs galore, students welcomed each other back to school with “Oh, I’ve missed you so much!” and “I know, right? I haven’t seen you in like forever!” Of course, it’s only been about two months since they were together when school let out for the summer, but who’s counting? As students and parents made their way around the registration tables, it was pretty entertaining to see how short their attention spans could be as faces were suddenly recognized and conversations got easily distracted. But I’m pretty sure they all made it through eventually.

I had mailed in my daughter’s paperwork ahead of time, so it didn’t take us too long to make it through the lines, just a few fees here and there along with getting her locker assignment. But even as we went to put a few things in her locker, there were ambushes all along the way with friends new and old waiting to stop us for a meet and greet. Each joyous interruption did warm my heart, though. As I’ve often said, I’d rather hear laughter than crying. And it’s always fun to watch big kids act like such little kids when you know they’d never admit to it.

After we finished up, I headed over to work at one of the tables. As a school booster member, I had volunteered to help out. I’ve always been extremely supportive of my kids both in and out of school (even to the point they have sometimes tried not to let me know when they had activities, heh heh), so here I was again. My daughter Lauren had headed off to take care of a few other errands, but I noticed that after awhile even she was back working at the yearbook table. She’s one of the yearbook leaders but hadn’t originally intended to work today. I’m glad both she and my son are willing to jump in when a need arises.

We got about half of Lauren’s books in digital format for her iPad this year, which is really pretty cool, so she won’t have as many to lug around. Sadly most of the ones she will lug around are indeed large science and language books. At least her math book is digital. That big ol’ thing has over 1000 pages and takes up 2.03 GB of memory! My daughter doesn’t actually start school until Thursday because she’s an upper classman (the freshmen start Wednesday), but as a student ambassador she will be there on Wednesday anyway to help the incoming freshmen find their way around. I have to say that I was very proud of her while we were going through registration because she was already taking time to welcome freshmen who came across her path. Yay, Lauren!

Our day hadn’t started out quite so joyously, however. It started with a trip to the oral surgeon’s office. Lauren is at the age where her wisdom teeth are gaining attention, so her dentist had referred us for a surgical consult. The surgeon struck me as a little arrogant, or rather a bit cocky, but I think most surgeons seem kinda that way and aren’t always known for their bedside manner (I do know a couple who are absolutely wonderful, however). I’m confident he knows his stuff, maybe too well, but I’ll just have to pray he’s the right guy for the job. He’d just better treat my daughter with the utmost respect, and we’ll all get along fine. As he went over the panoramic x-rays of Lauren’s teeth, he pointed out to us that she only has two wisdom teeth. That’s good news! The bad news is that they’re on the bottom, which usually means more swelling. But Lauren’s a trooper and took the news without much concern. She’s pretty tough anyway, but she plans to sleep through the entire process all the way from surgery through to recovery and healing. And just to show those teeth who’s boss, we enjoyed a nice big lunch at Freddy’s Frozen Custard. Yep, she’s tough as nails.

I love spending time with my kids. Anytime I get to do that, it’s a good day!