First day of preschool

Boy, am I glad that's over. It went pretty much as I expected it would. She was very excited to go, packing her backpack with a pencil, a book she had made, her water bottle and a snack. In fact, she was happy in the classroom until we told her we were leaving. Then the waterworks started. She CRIED and CRIED, and sat on my lap and told me that she wanted to go home. "No, mommy, don't leave me!"

The teachers tried to help distract her, but being the persistent girl that she is, it didn't work. One of her teachers told us we could stay - that it might be a good idea since this was her first experience being away from us. We really didn't want to do that. So I told Malayna that we would hang out in the hallway. That seemed to work. Little by little we made our way closer to the exit. Malayna would periodically peek out her classroom door to see if we were still there. Her teacher suggested that we leave when they changed classrooms. She said she'd close the door to the classroom so she would stop peeking out.

We waited downstairs for a few minutes {the teacher said she'd come down and let us know if Malayna was okay}. After a little while, I said to Jimmy, "I can't be here anymore. If I hear her crying up there, I won't be able to leave." Before I even finished, he said, "Okay, let's go." We were both pretty anxious to get out of there.

By the time we left, it was around 10:15. We went the market to get her a balloon and her new favorite snack, Kashi Heart to Heart cereal. As I was walking down the aisle, I suddenly thought about how she would feel when she realized we had left. I kept hoping that our cell phones would not ring and that she would finish the morning at school. Jimmy must've been thinking the same thing, because he said to me, "Did you give them my cell phone number?"

When we went to pick her up, she was excited to see us, but even more excited that it was time for "recess." Recess to her is when they go outside to the playground. Our neighbor and friend, Lily, was out there, too, and the two girls were very excited to see each other. {Lily is a year younger than Malayna, so they're not in the same class.} When it was time to go, Malayna said, "But I don't want to go home!"

One of her teachers told me that she had another meltdown after we left. She was in the bathroom and called to me to help her. The teacher told her I was downstairs talking to another teacher, and Malayna told her to get me. She said she couldn't and I guess that's when the waterworks started again. She was so loud that a teacher from another class came in and asked if she was okay. That lasted for about 10 minutes, and then the teacher asked if she wanted to sit on her lap for circle time. She did, for about a minute or so and then was fine. So fine, in fact, that she told the class she wanted to sing a song. She sang the theme song to The Little Einsteins - all by herself.

We took her out to lunch and then the plan was to go to the playground. But she just wanted to go home after lunch. She didn't mention the fact that we had left her until it was time for bed. It was just the two of us in her room, and she said, "I didn't know you left." And then, "I had my first day of school."

She wrote this in her journal tonight:
"I feel tired today. And cold. Because I ate ice cream.
School was fun because you leaved me there. And I am coming back the next day."

Photos here.