First Day of Preschool

Today was Evalyn's first day of preschool. She was so excited. We stopped in last week for her to look around and be familiar with things. Since we were starting in the middle of the year, we wanted to make extra sure things were all ready for her. Last night she had a hard time falling asleep. That made the morning a little rough so things weren't quite as smooth as I was hoping. (She didn't get to eat her blueberry pancakes until later that day.) But we took her picture, packed her little lunch and Daddy dropped her off. I'm sure if I'd gone I would've lingered and shed a small tear at the milestone. As it was, I could only smile at how fast Henry and Linnea descended on her unguarded My Little Ponies and princess castle. That is, after Henry settled down from the injustice of not getting to go with his big sister. Getting to help me cook the pancakes and not having to share the stool did the trick pretty quick.

I kept watching the clock, hoping she was fine and not sulky or left out or uncertain. I was there at noon on the dot to pick her up. When I walked in, she was sitting with the twin boys from her soccer team and just glanced at me with nary a smile. She was either too tired to make the effort or (more likely!) annoyed that I was there and the fun was coming to an end. I was expecting a bouncing little girl running to my arms saying "I'm so happy to see you Mommy! I missed you!" Not my little socialite! The teachers/helpers said she did fine and had a good time.

Later when we were home I asked her what she liked best. "Crafts." What else? "Playing in the toy stand." (The corner of the classroom has this fun platform house thing that she didn't want to leave when we were there on our walk through.) What else? "Circle Time!" with a grin. Later on in the day she mentioned they practiced writing the letter M and the number 0.

She's only going two days a week for now, which is just about right I think. She is very excited about starting school in the fall as well. Our town has 3 grade schools. They're divided by K-2, 3-4, 5-8, and then high school. (I think these can also shift year to year depending on needs.) Evalyn knows where they all are because a few times my friend Sheila watched E during the day for me and she'd go with for the school pick ups. The 5yo was at one school, the 8yo the next one, and the 11yo at the middle school. It's a bit different than schools I went to where it was K-6 and then 7-8. It seems to work well for this area, though a little traffic-ey for pickups and drop-offs perhaps.

Getting a good picture of a very excited somewhat overtired 4yo first thing in the morning was pretty futile. If some child hadn't left fingerprints on the lens, the top one would've been a bit better. She was very excited about taking her lunch with her though!