First Day of Pre-K

After reassuring Gracie that her teacher was not going to be a bird, she seemed anxious for today, except when I woke her up at 7:00 a.m. She usually sleeps until about 9:00, so she was pretty groggy. I finally got her to eat a few bites of Rice Krispies and half of a Kid Essentials milk, before she climbed into the van. She has decided that she doesn't need any help to open her van door, climb into the car seat, and buckle the harness, so she did everything independently this morning, too. When she got to the door of the classroom, we waited in line as the children and parents filed in. She held my hand and smiled when Mrs. Born said, "Hello, Gracie!" I could tell she was nervous, because she didn't argue at all about staying with me, and she finally held her arms up for me to hold her.

The first task was to choose the drink for their break, and the whole process baffled her. She had to find a stick with her name on it; decide white, chocolate, or juice; and put the stick into the appropriate container. She has never seen a small carton of milk or had orange drink, so that made the task even more difficult, since the containers were unfamiliar. After picking up Gage's stick (since it started with a G), she found hers, but didn't understand what to do with it even after Mrs. Born told her three times. I finally said, "Do you want to drink some milk at school today?" and she shook her head, so I helped her get the stick into the correct jar for white milk. Then I walked her to the seat that had her name in front of it. When I gave her a hug to leave, I reminded her that I would be working on the computer at the school and would pick her up at the door to go to lunch. She said, "You're my Mommy, not everybody's! Aste obichem." Then when I got to the door, she got up from her chair and ran to give me another hug. I told her I would stay at school and wait for her, and she went back to her seat.

Later, while I was organizing my school files in the computer lab, I saw her walk to the cafeteria with her class. She was in the back of the line by Mrs. Beck, and was holding her hand as she walked. When she saw me she said, "There is my Mommy!" but she kept on walking after I waved to her.

Mrs. Hanson told me when I picked her up that she did fine. In fact, she was glad to see that Gracie stood up for herself. Apparently somebody pushed her and she hit him back. I didn't think this was a good thing, though. We have been working to curtail the hitting, which seems to be an automatic reflex at times, but I thought we had eliminated the behavior since she hasn't hit us for weeks. I think being around all of the kids again brought back some old behaviors from the orphanaage. (We watched her defend her toy bucket.) I told Mrs. Hanson to watch for that and use time out if needed. I hope they nip it in the bud!

I went to summer pre-K today!