Lilly's First Day of Preschool

Well, it happened.  The day I have been so dreading excited about all summer.  Lilly's first day of Preschool was yesterday!  I was so excited/anxious on Tuesday night that I did not sleep a wink.  Deep down, I knew that she would be fine, that this would be good for her, that she would love it, etc.  But it is so dang hard to watch your baby grow up, and it happens so fast.  I just need for time to slow down a little.

Disclaimer: There are going to be so. many. photos. in this post.  I tried to narrow them down, but I couldn't! Sorry, not sorry!

I spent Tuesday evening preparing for Wednesday morning.  I did some laundry, ironed Lilly's little "first day of school" dress, packed her lunch and book bag (or "back pack" as she likes to call it) and made a sign for pictures, ha:

***UPDATE:  I have had several questions so I guess I should clarify.  Lilly is actually in a toddler class but I couldn't think of how to put it for purposes of the sign, so I went with 2 year old class.  However, her classmates are all around the same age (18 months, give or take a few)...and right now, they are all girls!

I woke up Wednesday morning with my stomach in knots.  I honestly was more nervous about how I was going to handle it than Lilly.  I awoke to the following text from my mother:

Good luck to you and my angel girl today!  Although it is sad for them to take that first step to fly - focus on being so proud that she's bright and beautiful and READY to begin making her impact on this world.  So proud of you both and I love you both so much. :-)

Can I just go on the record and say, IS SHE KIDDING ME WITH THAT?!  I wrote her back and told her not to talk to me again until she could say something far less nice to make me stop crying.  

Lilly, on the other hand, woke up in a great mood and was ready to go!  She demanded her sunglasses as soon as she got out of bed and wore them around all morning.  Diva.

We ate breakfast...

waffles, her favorite!

 ...and then quickly got our things together so that we could have a photo shoot!

Prepare yourselves.  I took a TON of photos. And the fact that Lilly was feeling uncooperative did not deter me one bit.

"Chalk, mommy!"

I wanted L to wear her back pack, but she pitched a fit.  Which is seriously annoying, because she's been obsessed with it and wanting to wear it everywhere ever since we bought it.  I'm not sure if it was because it was no longer empty, or what, but it wasn't heavy at all because there wasn't much in there.  I made Dan put it on to see if that would change Lilly's mind...

Hopefully he won't be mad that I posted this one, ha! Ladybugs look good on him, yes?

...and at first I thought my plan had worked...

...but she seriously wasn't into the back pack.  Sigh.

She also was decidedly not into pictures.  Period.

Finally, I put the nice camera away, so L of course started hamming it up as soon as I did so.  Luckily I was able to snag a few good ones with my iPHone.

Can we all take a moment to discuss the cuteness of her dress?!  Dan rolled his eyes at me because on Tuesday night at orientation the teachers warned us that our children will often come home dirty, so not to send them in nice clothes.  I informed them that she would be wearing a nice dress at least on the first day.  More eye rolling, ha!

We arrived at school, and I was crying before we even got into the building.  I tried blaming it on my hormones, but Dan said, "Let's not act like you wouldn't be emotional even if you weren't pregnant."  Touché, husband.  But maybe it wouldn't have been as bad?  Ha!

Lilly was so excited when we walked into the classroom.  The teachers had on a bubble machine, and there were so many toys and activities laid out, she wasn't sure what to play with first!  She decided to start at the crayons/stickers/bandaids station, so she colored for a few minutes and then went exploring.

One of Lilly's sweet teachers, Ms. Joanne

Dan and I stayed for about five minutes, and once we realized that Lilly was absolutely fine and could care less whether or not we were there, we gave her a hug and a kiss and told her bye bye.  Her teachers told us at orientation the night before that it was important to tell our child goodbye and let them know that we were leaving, otherwise the child wouldn't trust us every time we left a room.  So, we gave hugs and kisses and told her that we loved her and "bye bye."  She was not phased one bit!  She looked at me and said, "Love you mommy, bye bye!"  And that was that.  Queue more water works from the pregnant woman!

When I got to my desk about half an hour later, I noticed that my phone was ringing and I didn't recognize the number.  It was the director of the preschool calling to check on me and let me know that she'd just checked in on Lilly and that Lilly was doing great, no tears whatsoever.  I was on the verge of tears yet again and was mortified.  Get it together, lady!

Carney will be picking Lilly up on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I wanted to see how L did on her first day so I left work and met them for pick up.  L's teachers said that she did absolutely great!  They said that she whimpered a few times, but as soon as they gave her lovey, she was fine, and then she didn't need lovey anymore after a few minutes so they'd put it away again.  They said she had a blast playing with the other kids and that they were impressed by her vocabulary (I told them to just wait until she warmed up, she won't stop!), and they told me she even sat at the lunch table to eat which I am shocked by.  I assumed she would be too busy exploring to eat if she wasn't confined to a high chair!  Ms. B and Ms. Joanne told me that they think Lilly is going to do wonderfully this year.  She even gave them a hug before she left, and I know she'll be excited for her second day tomorrow!

Carney surprised Lilly with a celebratory "first day of preschool" donut, which I thought was SO sweet, and Lilly was of course really excited about it.

She was also really excited to see her friend Kinsley!

And she actually ate much more of her lunch than I thought she would.

Overall, it was a great day.  I knew deep down that L would be fine, and I'm so glad she was.  We LOVE this program and Lilly's teachers already, and I think it's going to be a great year for everyone.  And Mom was right...it is so hard to watch your babies get their wings and take off for the first time.  It will downright break your heart a little.  But I am so proud and thankful that my sweet, beautiful little girl is ready to make her mark on the world.  

Happy first week of preschool, sweet Lilly Bean.  I am so, so proud to be your mama.  I love you to the moon and back, times infinity!