Preschool Bound

Ella had her first day of preschool yesterday. She has been so looking forward to this for the past week since she went for her one-on-one "orientation" and found out that they have an inside playset AND a sand table AND a watering fountain.

But don't be fooled by the smiling child you see before you. It took a fair amount of tear-wiping, hushed words, security blankets and stuffed animals, small symbols of Momma and Mommy loves tucked into zippered pockets and even some cajoling to get her dressed and out the door yesterday morning.

The sweetest and most heart-wrenching argument why she shouldn't go to school?

"I will miss you Mom."

The upshot is that is was a huge success. Ella is kind of like me, afterall, with her proclivity toward the dramatic in regards to emotional displays. Once she got it all out, she got dressed, got her teeth brushed and became the smiling child you see above. In her car seat, mini-muffins I had made for the first day snack tucked under her feet, and making predictions about how much her new friends would love the "yum muffins" as she calls them. (zucchini chocolate chip- they are yummy.)

Initially a bit tenuous. Why are all these other children here, too? I thought I was going to have those lovely teachers to myself.

There were, blessedly, no tears. She really does have the most incredible two women teaching her preschool class and we used one of them to transition out. She brought Ella to the "goodbye" window where we exchanged "I love you" signs and some other complicated forms of expressing love one story away and through a pane of class and off we went.

Sandi went to have coffee with a friend. I put Maya to sleep and worked, UNINTERRUPTED, for an hour and a half in the office with a cup of tea that I drank while it was STILL HOT.

And this is what she looked like when we picked her up.

Not too bad, huh? She even let her new friend's dad push her on the swing. She told her teacher all about Maya and what she would be doing at home. She passed out the snack she had brought. In short, she was out in the world WITHOUT US and fairing, even thriving, on her own.

This is the view from the really rockin' tree house. Good job, Ella. We are so proud of you.


(And so looking forward to Thursday when you go back again!)