Forgive my brief absence. Everyday I’m hopeful that I’ll be delivering this baby, so I sit really still and forget to do thinks like send along pictures of Sunshine’s first day of school.
You’ll be happy to know that while the night before and hours leading up to her departure I cried like a baby, when the actual moment came I managed to pull myself together and carry on.
She walked into her classroom where she had a cubby (with mail in it) and a locker – both with her name! She took Miss Obie’s hand, and walked away from Matt and I without so much as a goodbye. They had a table full of my little pony dolls and apparently that’s all she needed to throw 2.5 years of one on one parenting right out the door! Matt and I then went to the office to fill out her paperwork and watch her on the monitor. She was happy and playing and that was that. On our way out we watched her class come out of their room and into the park area where they all lined up and sat politely on the “waiting bench”….all except our child who promptly stood in front of all the other kids with her hands on her hips. I thought- well that’s Gracen!
When we picked her up at the end of the day I did get a giant hug and her teachers had only wonderful things to say. She participated in music class- she loves to dance they said. Yes, she does! She helped make fruit salad in their cooking class, she slept at nap time, and painted a picture at crafts time. They said, it’s like she’s been coming here for forever. She never cried, didn’t ask about you, warmed up to everyone, and even gave us attitude at the end of the day. That’s when my face went from, that’s my girl!!!!! to, that’s my girl, ugh!
It’s funny how before taking her to preschool I thought of the other children as these monster kids. In my mind they’d be bigger kids with attitudes and motorcycle jackets. As it turns out almost all of them have a lovie doll, they don’t seem to mind Sunny’s imaginary friend ( although I’m not sure she went to school with us that day), and they are for the most part the same size or smaller than Sunny. They were these sweet, well loved, little munchkins who as it turns out, don’t bite, hit, or pull curls on curly headed girls.
I’m proud of my big girl, still a little sad that she’s growing up so quickly, but I’m moving toward acceptance….mostly because I have no other choice.
