Lily started preschool!
It's a little bit hard for me to believe that I have a child old enough to be going to preschool, but both she and I are definitely ready. Once we figured out where we would be living the search began. I think I wrote an earlier post about the stresses involved in selecting the "right" preschool. Since we started looking pretty late in the season for preschool applications, that significantly narrowed our options. But, my only criteria for choosing where she went were that 1) we could walk to it, and 2) they would not actively abuse her. And we found the perfect one!
The only required school supply was a backpack that can fit a 9x12" piece of construction paper. Lily had a really cute little toddler backpack that can fit at most a 5x7" paper. So we looked around and anything that was big enough either looked ridiculous on her because she's a peanut, or cost $90 (I'm looking at you Duluth Pack). So I decided to make one. I found this adorable pattern on Pinterest, my new obsession. I looked at the dimensions for cutting and thought "Perfect!". Only I forgot to allow for seams. So... after all that it's about half an inch too small in each direction. BUT, you can fit a 9x12" piece of construction paper in it if it is bowed a little bit.
Lily picked out her outfit for the first day. She wanted to wear her special Easter dress, made by the fabulous Rebecca Lynn Designs, and flip-flops to "match mama". Finally, she wanted her hair done in a Rapunzel braid.
Then it was time for pictures.
Lily LOVES going to preschool. She's excited to play with her friends and check out all the fun things in their classroom. On the first day, we all walked together and we hung out for about 15 minutes in the classroom chatting with some of the other parents. We asked Lily if she was ready for us to leave and she said "Yep! Goodbye!" and ran off to play dress up. No tears were shed on either of our parts.
When I go to pick her up, she's usually pretty tired on the walk home so we just chat a little bit about what she did if she wants to. I try not to bombard her with questions, even though I have a million. But throughout the rest of the day, usually after naptime, she shares about things they did, who she played with, what she liked and didn't like, etc. We're a week into it, and it's going fabulously.
While Joe is still at home, I'm trying to take advantage of those precious hours. Joe watches Thomas while I am FINALLY able to really get things settled. We have everything unpacked in that it is out of boxes, but the music room is a mess, our clothes aren't in the right drawers, and a million other small things that just haven't gotten done yet. It feels so good to actually have things settled and arranged and right. I'm looking forward to October, when Joe goes back to work and it'll just be me and my baby boy for two and a half hours three times a week.
I love September. I love that back to school feeling. There's so much hope and optimism and a sense of starting fresh. I'm going to try to hold onto that for as long as possible.
