First Day of School

My tiny bumblebee went to Preschool today and she was verrrrrrry excited about it.

Largest backpack of all time, but the one she wanted. I just tear up looking at these. Here she is walking in.I was the ONLY parent that walked their child in out of the two year old class. Everyone else used the car lane. The workers go out and get the child out of the car and bring them inside. It is a huge convenience and makes for a smooth walk for everyone, but I just couldn't do it this morning and had asked for permission to walk her in. I think it made it harder on her in hindsight, but I would probably still do it for my own sake. Ridiculous, but true.

Anyway, she was still excited when we got there and only got a quivery lip once I asked to take her picture with her teacher. She wanted me to stay and so Elise and I immediately slipped out. NO TEARS!! In fact, the only time she cried all day was because she did not want to stay on her cot at naptime. She never napped or even shut her eyes and her teacher said, "We will just have to work on following the rules." Ooops :)
We normally nap at 1:30 at home and they nap at noon at school, so she genuinely wasn't tired. I think I will work on moving her naptime up at home to see if we can sync the schedules a bit. I am just so proud of her today. I think back to the nursery nightmare screaming fits we went through and I cannot believe she made it the full five hours just happy and having fun. In her words:

Music Class-- "Me played the egg shaker. Everyone wanted it, but me got it."
PE Class-- "We ran and ran and ran and then we would freeze. Watch Mom, like this."
Lunch-- (she didn't eat a single bite of her lunch, not even the dessert) "Me didn't have time to eat."
Classroom-- "EVERYONE got off their cot and just ran all around."
"My best friend was Maggie."
"Ms. Jen said 'Shhhh Amelia, no talking in the hall,' so me do me lips like this." (fish face)
"Me has work to do at home and let's look at it in the car." (while we were in the parking lot)

She asked to go to bed at five and was asleep by 7:25. This is very abnormal for our non-sleeper who usually is asleep by 9:45 or 10:00. Worn out for sure. I am thankful for the wonderful day for her and for all the well wishes and prayers for both of us.

I did much better than I thought I would. Obviously I was sad, but Elise kept me so busy that I didn't have much time to dwell. She's everywhere! Thanks to Emily for bringing Micah to meet us for some "I love and miss my big girl" talk.

So glad she's home with Mommy tomorrow.