First day of preschool

Today was Hope's first day of preschool, and it went great! She has been looking forward to it for weeks, and especially after she got a look at her classroom during orientation.

Here she is on orientation day, wearing the dress that I wore on my first day of kindergarten. ::Sniff, sniff::


Hope's teacher's name is a little tricky, so Hope asked if she could call her Mrs. P. There are two helpers in the class also, and of course Hope's favorite member of the class is Frisky the gerbil.


In the couple of days since orientation, we've tried not to build up the first day of school and make her feel anxious, but we've tried to talk it through and remind her how it will go. How I'll drop her off and pick her up, how she'll use the potty all by herself, how she'll have to wear sneakers instead of sandals because of the playground. We've talked about saying "My name is Hope. What's your name?" and what to do if she has trouble getting along with someone.

When we got there this morning, Hope was eager to get through the part where we had to stand in line to turn in some paperwork and get onto the part where she could play in her classroom. And sure enough, when we got there she ran right in. I had to call her back to the doorway to get a kiss! She was so happy to be there, and I couldn't have felt better about that.


Grant and I had a sweet couple of hours running errands together while Hope was at school. Picking her up at 2:45 means his afternoon nap has to get pushed back a bit, and sure enough, he couldn't quite make it today. He woke up when Hope got in the car, and he seemed as happy to see her as I was!