Willa started preschool in the beginning of September. I decided to leave our dearly loved co-op preschool group for a more formal preschool. Willa likes it, but misses her friends (even though she still sees them all the time because of church, playgroup, field trip Fridays, and babysitting swap).
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| Willa's 4th day of preschool |
On the first day of school, Willa walked into the classroom and hollered out, "Hello, I'm here" as if everyone had been waiting for her arrival and then immediately ran and put on a Cinderella dress. I admit I was a little embarrassed, but was also happy that she was excited. I just smiled at the teacher. I was super shy when I was young so I'm not sure where she gets her outgoing personality. The room was full of three-year-olds clinging to their mothers and Willa made herself at home.
The second day of preschool was a similar scene. Parents didn't stay so the room was full of kids and her two teachers. Four of the kids were crying so each teacher was comforting two kids. One of her teachers looked up and said, "Hi Willa. I knew I could count on you for not crying. Thank you." Willa said hi and ran off to play with the princess dress ups. After school I asked her if a lot of the kids cried. She said yes and said she thinks she saw some cuts on their faces. I laughed. I think that answer was sweet. It didn't enter her mind that they could be crying for any other reason than having boo-boos. The thought of me dropping her off doesn't bother her in the least.
On the third day we had this conversation as we pulled up:
me: We're here.
Willa: This isn't preschool. I thought you said we were going to preschool.
me: This is preschool.
Willa: This isn't preschool! This is REAL school!
me: Well, what is preschool then? (giggling)
Willa: With Taylor and Sallie and Mariah and Melynn (her group from last year) That was preschool. That was fun.
I guess she misses her friends, but she hopped out of the car and ran into preschool happily. I felt bad because I was really on the fence about leaving the co-op group. So I had second thoughts all morning until I picked her up and heard about the fun she had.
Their unit is "getting to know you" this month. They each had to bring in pictures and talk about them to the class. Willa spoke the first day and was so excited after school that she got to talk about "families are forever" at school. Oh, man! So sweet. I wish I could have watched it. I wonder what she said and what her teachers thought.
And here's Clarky. He turned 18 months today.
Two things stick out to me in this picture...
(1) His finger in his belly button
He loves, loves, LOVES his belly button and walks around with his finger in it all day long. He loves discovering other people's belly buttons and sticking his finger in them. Every morning when he wakes up, he wants to sit on my lap, drink a sippy cup of soy milk (still can't have dairy), and play with his belly button. If he's wearing zipper PJs, he whimpers until I unzip them so he can have full access to his belly button.
(2) His shoes are on the wrong feet
Willa put them on for him. He loves Willa and wants to do everything she does. I've noticed since she's started preschool that he misses her when she's gone. Today she was napping (or so I thought) playing in her room and he would not stay quiet. He kept going to the bottom of the stairs and hollering his nonsense jargon up the stairs to tell her to come down.
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