Back to school

The "big day" for Kaelyn was today - that is, her back to school day. Though she has been anxiously asking about school for the past couple weeks, I thought she still might cry the first couple days. When we went to the open house Friday, she was excited but still clinging to me. She wanted me right with her pretty much the whole time and when we first walked in, she was hiding behind my legs. Not this morning though. I am fully aware that I might be jinxing myself since both of the other times she started (last Jan. and then the summer program) she was sort of okay the first day but then didn't do so well after that because she knew what was going to happen after the first day (I was going to leave her). I don't really think that will happen this time though. I didn't have to wake her up this morning. When I went out to the kitchen to make sure her lunch stuff was all ready, she woke up and came out with a smile on her face. When we got to school and into the classroom, she was so excited she couldn't stand still - seriously. :) She knew exactly where she was supposed to put her stuff and what to do. Out of the 10 kids who were in her class last year, 4 of them were old enough to move on to kindergarten but the other 6 (including her) are all still four and are all back this year and so far it is only kids from last year in her class. So she knows all her classmates, she has the same teacher, one of the same aides - pardon me, I believe their correct title now is paraprofessional :) - and just one new aide. She was all smiles for the camera this morning and while her smiles are her "fake grin for the camera" grins, her happiness was not fake. Such a relief to a mommy as you can imagine. I couldn't have been prouder of her. Now my only problem is that she is growing up WAY too fast for my liking!
P. S. Check out my cool new quotes and blog facelift. :)


A very similar pose to the one we took of
her on her first day last January (I like
those "progression" pictures).


She was supposed to be "showing off" her
new Tinker Bell lunchbox but I'm not quite
sure she got that idea. Still cute though.


Same backpack - quite a bit bigger little
girl than our last picture like this.


Too big, too fast.


Walking into the school.


Walking into her new classroom. I was
actually going to try to get a better picture
of her with all the stuff on her classroom
door but she was in too big of a hurry to
get inside.


She is very fascinated with days/dates and she loves
that every day they go over what the day, month, and
date is. ("Today is Monday, August 24." She just
doesn't like it when it's a new month and she has
to adjust to learning a new month.)


In front of her picture schedule. She moves
each activity square to the top by her name
as they move from one activity to another.


First one - not smiling...

...Second one - [fake] smiling but distracted
by other classmates coming in. Oh well. :)