First Day of School!!

Addie started pre-school last week! She's one of 12 students in Miss Bea's Tuesday/Thursday Pandas class. If you know Addie, you know that she has been the queen of separation anxiety since...birth? Oh and she freaks out in large crowds of children. Large crowds of children...sounds like school to me! Yikes! But we really wanted to get her started in a school situation sooner than later so she could work through some anxieties and gain even more of the independence that she has developed since Cole was born. Needless to say, I was very very nervous about how this would go over.


We prepared her for a long time, getting her excited about school, attending a playground meet-up with her teacher and a tour of the classroom. Yaya had the wonderful book "The Kissing Hand" at her bookstore so we read it every morning during the week leading up to the first day. My friend Megan gave me the good idea of preparing Addie for what the first day of school would be like, so every day for a week I would say "So we'll walk into your school and put your backpack on your hook, I will show your cubby with your name on it, and then I'll say "Bye Addie, I love you" and you'll say (and she'd chime in with) "bye Mommy, I love you."


The first day arrived and she was very excited and very ready. We rushed around getting things ready to go and we arrived there a little early. You aren't allowed in the classroom early, so we hung out with the other parents in the "riding room." Addie stuck close to me and looked nervous. I tried to be more cheerful on the outside than I was on the inside.


Finally it was time to go to her class room. We walked in and hung up her backpack, and found her cubby. One of the moms working (it's a co-op, which means that there are two moms in the class room each day, so Steve or I will have to work 1-2 times a month) asked Addie if she wanted to do playdough. Addie said yes and sat down. At the orientation, Miss Bea said "don't linger, just say goodbye and leave" but looking around--the other parents were lingering!! Addie looked up at ME and said "Good-bye Mommy, I love you!" Are you KIDDING ME? So I kissed her and left. There was a meeting at the nursery (where Cole will hang out when I am working my co-op shift) and when it let out 25 minutes later I couldn't help but peek in the window of the door to her class room.

There, calm as can be, was Addie, sitting alone at a table coloring. And I swear she had a very "I'm important" look on her face. Wow. I mean, wow.
I went home and put Cole down for a nap. They didn't call me to come and get her as I had imagined they would have to do. When I pulled into the parking lot to pick her up, I noticed her class was outside on the playground. And Addie was happy! I went up and she immediately announced that indeed she HAD cried when she had to wash her hands for snack and Miss Bea confirmed that she had cried for about 10 minutes. "Because, you didn't COME, mommy" "Well I'm here now, right?" "Yeah" :)

The second day of school went very much the same--we did our little routine, I left her without a single tear. Cole had napped before we left this time so he and I rushed to Trader Joe's for a shopping trip. As I drove home I realized I had about 20 minutes to get the groceries in the house and get back to school--plenty of time. But I have to pass the school in order to get home and I glanced at the playground and noticed that Addie was in one of the moms arms. I considered trucking on with my plan, but instead I turned around--not to rescue Addie 20 minutes early, but to rescue the mom. Addie is a craver of vertical elevation--she likes nothing more than to be carried, and if I could guess right, this mom could have been holding her for awhile to avoid her tears. I was right. Addie was fine if she was in this lovely lady's arms. So...she does great at drop-off. She gets upset at transition time, but is fine after some tears and some TLC. Verdict? Better than I could ever imagine it would be...times a gazillion.

But poor Addie, I will be asking the moms on the next shift to not hold her...I'll let you know how it goes... :)

I can't believe my little girl is in school. Did I cry? Not a drop--I'm just so thrilled that it's going so well!