Saturday, September 24, 2011

First Day of Preschool

Gabriela has been talking about preschool for ages now.  She has been so excited, telling me every day that she will listen to her teachers and share and not grab from other kids. We've spent a lot of time talking about how she'll be a big girl, and I will drop her off. How she'll make new friends, and have special time at school, and then I will pick her up and she can tell me all about it. 

Tuesday finally arrived and as soon as I woke Gabriela up and told her it was the big day, she hopped out of bed.  We have also been talking about how she'll need to go potty by herself like a big girl at preschool.  So, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when she refused to go potty at home in the morning.  "No, Mom! I'm going to do it at preschool!!!"  We had to talk about how you go potty at home AND at preschool.  She agreed.

I was instructed to take good care of Crazy Hair Baby, to bring her to school when I pick up Gabriela, AND to bring Crazy Hair Baby's milk bottle.  Gabriela said I was the babysitter and asked that I make sure Crazy Hair Baby got a play date with her friend while she was away at school.  She also told me, "remember to follow the rules, Mom." 

As we were walking up the path to preschool and throughout the whole morning, Gabriela would say things like, "Isn't this so exciting?!?!  It's my first day of skew-well!!!"


Then we got there.

We arrived to a little kid with a ninja death grip on the door jam, screaming bloody murder, completely horrified that his parents were leaving him. Uh, this was traumatizing me, I can't imagine how Gabriela must have felt.  Like I was keeping some big preschool secret from her?  Poor baby. I totally didn't think to prep her about how other kids might be nervous. whoopsies.

She timidly put her new bag on the hook, got her name tag and told me she didn't want me to leave.  I gave her a big hug and a kiss and told her I'd be back to pick her up soon.

Well, I got there a little too soon.  I arrived a few minutes early and the kids were still playing outside on the playground.  Gabriela spotted me and tried walking over to me.  The teachers redirected her and reminded her to stay with her class.  Then she burst into tears, only for a few moments but long enough to break my heart.

A couple minutes later, she came out of her classroom with a project she made, very excited that she got to use glue! And her first words when she came out of class were, "I had fun playing with Charlotte!" Gabriela made some other little friends too.

I keep hearing little tidbits about her day, like how the soap was magical, and she played with a toy clock, and the teacher said they couldn't go on the big playground yet, and how one kid was grumpy.  We discussed these details over first day of school frozen yogurt.

A lady walked into the yogurt shop and Gabriela asked her if it was HER first day of school too, because why else would she be allowed to get a special treat like that in the middle of the day?

Over all, I think it was a success. It will be easier for her after she makes better friends with some of the kids and the other kids aren't so nervous about being dropped off. 
Here she is saying, "It's my first day of school!!!!!"

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