Preschool Days

Emily started preschool this week <sniff, sniff>. The morning of her first day, Matt and Charlotte stayed home while I took her over because we expected her to have a hard time saying good-bye. She tends to be clingy in new situations and around other kids, so I'd sorta been dreading this drop off for days.

Sarah, her head teacher, greeted us as we arrived and then offered to give us some space to read books before I left. Made sense - have Em get acclimated before she was on her own. Em, however, had different plans. After taking off her shoes she asked to explore, and Sarah said she'd have to say "bye" to me before doing that, so she again suggested we read a book. But Em was insistent and she happily kissed and hugged me before yelling "Bye Mommy!" as she and Sarah scampered off. No drama, no clinginess.

Wait, what?!?!? Never in a million years did I expect her to leave me without the slightest hesitation. I was in total shock. Actually, I was thrilled. Since I'd experienced the feeling of leaving her when she didn't want to be left behind, it was such a relief to not have to do that again. I was sad too. Sad Emily's growing up. Sad she's going to experience new things that I wouldn't be there to see. But I was also proud. Proud she was so ready to start this new chapter. Proud she didn't flinch saying goodbye to me. Proud she is such a brave girl.

I got a midday call that afternoon with an update on how she was doing and Sarah's first words were, "Emily is a total pleasure..." She went on to say how engaged, interested, and well-behaved Em was. She said her language skills are great, and she's really good at expressing her thoughts/needs. During "circle time" everyone had to say their name, spell it (if they could), then name and act out their favorite animal. Em spelled her name (yay!) and said her favorite animal is an elephant. Apparently Em found all the kids' animal actions hilarious too. Sarah summed up by saying she can see Emily is a very confident and fun little girl. My heart nearly burst hearing how well she was doing. SO proud.

Here are the pics we took the morning of her first day. She was very excited and could barely stand still, so most of the shots are blurry from all her bouncing.

(Full disclosure: Since my creativity peaks around times of change, on her first day she donned a dress I'd made along with an oilcloth backpack I'd sewn. Her hair was pulled back by a barrette I'd fashioned and her mermaid sleeping bag was tucked away in a butterfly adorned pillowcase. I know I know, I may have gone a bit overboard with these handmade touches, but it calms me to leave my mark on all the things she'll be surrounded by when I can't be there.)

 

 

And since I'm writing this on her 3rd day of school, I'll mention that the midday call I got from Sarah today started with, "I just love Emily..."   So do we, Sarah, so do we.