First Day of Preschool

Yes, today was the day... August 17, 2010... that my baby started preschool!! She is in a 3 year old preschool class at Whitefield Academy. We have been talking about her starting school all summer and what she'll be doing there, what to expect, etc etc trying to prepare her. She seemed very excited every time she would talk about it and would tell everyone, "I'm going to school this fall!" (I later found out that she thought the name of her school was This Fall. Haha!)

So this morning when I went to wake her up, I asked her if she remembered where she was going today and she said, "To SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!" I had let her pick out her clothes the day before, so we got her dressed and ready, ate breakfast, took first day of school pictures, and Nick and I drove together to take her for the first day.

When we got to her classroom, we signed her in and she got to walk through the toddler-sized door into her class. She walked right in after watching a classmate go through and I had to call her back to get her to give us hugs. That's when I started losing it... I suddenly wanted to hold her so tightly, pick her up and run back to the car with her, something... ANYTHING... except what I had to do, which was watch her walk straight into her classroom so independently, with half a smile on her face, and stroll over to a table with 2 of her classmates and immediately start coloring. ("I LOVE orange!" she declared). I watched her through the window at the top of the door and tears streamed down my face. The other mothers commisserated with me and Shiloh's teacher, Mrs. Fisher, said, "She's going to do great!" to which I replied, "I know! But I'm not..." [I had warned her at the open house that I was 99.9% sure I would cry]

Anyway, I somehow found the strength to walk away from her classroom and I cried, cried, cried for a good hour on and off. All day long I thought about her and what she would probably be doing at different times and whether or not she was having fun or feeling sad and missing Mommy and Daddy (ha!). I prayed for her that she would feel comfortable and secure and have a great day making friends. Thankfully, I was busier at work today than I have been in a long time (praise God for that one) and the end of the day finally rolled around. Nick left work a little early to pick her up, and he assured me that she'd had a great day. I couldn't convince myself, however, until I talked to her myself.

And of course, she assured me she'd had a great day as well. I asked her about all of the things she did, and the friends she made, and I was overwhelmed with relief and pride as I listened to her responses. She told me that she'd shared toys with "all of the guys" (haha) and that she sang happy birthday to Claudia. She took a nap on her cot and was "soooo happy" to have her blanket at naptime. She played on the playground but didn't get to swing today (maybe next time). She went to the library and read books. She colored pages and did stamps (she was VERY excited about this one). I asked her if she ate her broccoli at lunch and she corrected me, because in fact they'd changed the menu and she'd had green beans with her turkey sandwich instead. (I confirmed this via the daily sheet that her teacher sends home with all of the activities they did for the day, what lunch and snacks they had, and who all of her classmates for the day were.)

So Shiloh had a great first day of preschool... and I somehow made it through the day as well. Here are some pictures of our grown-up 2 1/2 year old on her first day:

(This morning before school)








(This afternoon, as I was too emotional in the morning to remember to take pictures of her with her backpack)






There was one moment that really sticks out in my mind from the morning... as we were walking into her school, Nick was carrying her, and I reached out to rub her leg. As I did so, she turned around and smiled at me, and it was a smile I will never forget because it felt like she was (nonverbally) trying to comfort me. Her smile said, "It's going to be GREAT, Mom!"

I am SOO proud of you, my sweet angel!!