Abby's First Day of School

Abby's first day of school.

My youngest (currently anyhow) is an official school kid. Though I was a bit worried about her taking to preschool, she ended up shocking us all and doing fabulous! After all her rants about not wanting to go to school and threats to walk home if I drop her off, I was sure I was going to have a little girl clinging to my leg and crying like mad. I've been prepping her through the summer by doing things with her that sparks that tiny bit of independence that she needs to be left somewhere without me. I started with swim lessons and moved on to library hour. Both of which didn't really involve me standing right next to her. I think library hour helped most because it's a drop your kid off kind of thing. She did fantastic with that so it gave me hope. We also picked out special clothes for the first day and she got to pick her backpack and school supplies which also helped. This past weekend, wanted to get her haircut short like mine and so I whipped out my scissors and lopped off three or four inches of her hair. She loves, loves, loves her new do! It's short, but it fits her well. She loves that we match hair now. She was excited to show everyone at school her new hair.

So on her first day, I tried my very best to not show my apprehension about the situation and hoped and prayed that her first day would be just wonderful. And blessed we were! Abby was a tad scared at first. She hovered by my leg for the first few minutes because there wasn't a single little girl there. The class has eight boys and three girls (or something like that). Once a little girl came and talked to her, she started to step further away from me. She gave me a big hug and kiss and whispered in my ear about how the little girl wasn't the one she remembered from the "first night". By 'first night', she means open house. But once her new little buddy, Lilly, walked in, she started to smile just a little. One more big hug and kiss and one reassuring moment of how long it would be before I was back to pick her up, and she went her own way. No tears!! Yay for Abby!! Turns out that she did wonderful. Her teacher said that she did amazing on the project for the day and commented how detailed she was in her work. She also said that she already made fast friends with the other girls in the class and did just great. I couldn't have been more proud of my little girl. She surprised everyone and is really excited about going back again. As for me, I shed a little tear while leaving up those stairs and smiled. My baby girl is growing up. Good job, miss Abby! I'm so proud of you!