minorhappenings: Nora's First Day of School (preK/4)

Well, today was the BIG day that we have all been looking forward to... well maybe not the gettin' up early part ;P but all in all, we did pretty good this morning and we DID get there on time!

It helped that last night before bath, Nora laid out all of her clothes for today. No surprise that she choose this yellow shirt and blue shorts. Ever since I bought them along with a few other mix-n-match sets... these are the ONLY ones she wants to wear. ;P

We didn't have much time to spare, but she got dressed all by herself while I got Paul Thomas changed and then myself dressed.. after that she was ready to have her hair fixed. We made both braids on the first try! yeah! :P

Then the three of us went down to the kitchen leaving David to finish getting ready and then wake up Olivia and dress her and bring downstairs.

Nora didn't fuss at all about shoes to wear. I'm so glad I started telling her last week about how her princess crocks are not for school (against their dress code) whew...

However at the breakfast table there was a tiny tiny "issue." About what to eat or not eat. I popped in her favorite choice, waffles... and got started cutting up the apple slices... but then she protested saying she wasn't gonna eat anything!

"No, I don't want my chap stick to rub off! I'm not going to eat any-fang today!"

....b/c she didn't want to mess up her precess chap stick! ??#?#?? I told her that it was very important to eat so her brain would have enough energy, and to help her learn new things, and remember...

So I told her I'd call daddy upstairs and tell him to bring down the chap stick when he came so after she was done eating she could put it on again...

and she now agreed to eat something before school... only now she her mind was made up. She wanted "Aunt Nell's GREEN BEANS and CORN on the COV, vegetables from the garden!" She's really into learning all about the food groups and only wants the things that "comes from the garden" :c) Well, that is good Nora, but not for breakfast... now eat! :P

*sigh* :P you can tell from the photo she was too excited to stand still for the photo, or look at the camera, or sit in the chair to eat!

Nora rode with David in his car and I followed behind.... actually I think I was ahead in traffic... I just couldn't send them off and stay at home with the babies... what miss this?! Plus the fact that she had a lot to carry into school today b/c of the snacks and show-n-tell.

So while David was waiting their turn in the drop off carpool lane I got her out and took her pic in front of the sign, then stuck her back in the car and he pulled thru and dropped her off.... and the teachers took her to where she needs to go...

I found a parking spot and waited for David to come sit in the van with the babies while I took all the "snack and show-n-tell stuff" in....

On my way out, I saw thru the Gym doors so many parents in there with the kids... so I go in and they are in the middle of morning prayers... but I didn't see any of the preK kids (they're easy to spot b/c they don't wear uniforms yet) So I left out of that set of doors and walked down to the other end and there were all the PreK/3 and PreK/4 kids standing at the end of the gym floor.

UunHa! I knew it, I'm just like all the other normal parents that "go in" on the first day...! Before I found Nora, the thought came over me that maybe she's scared or sad b/c she's the only one there without her momma... well when I located Nora, she totally gave me the brush off! LOL Yep, that's my girl! Little miss "I can do it all by myself, Independent Nora" :) She didn't want me to stand next to her and she wouldn't even look at me...

So I backed away and gave her the space she wanted and just enjoyed the opportunity to observe her as she said morning prayers with the rest of her classmates... then they found their teacher and went to their classroom.... and one by one came out to the hall and put their backpacks in their lockers.. so I was able to get a few photos. ;)

Nora's not in this above photo but I thought the chalk board doors were so cute. :)

After we left, I let David drive my van home with the babies, then I took his car to go to my Dr. I had a 2 hours blood sugar test done so we scheduled it for today... it wasn't too long after I got home that it was time to go pick up Nora.

Today was a half day for all the grades... so the pick up car pool line was crazy! We waited for what seemed like forever before we ever moved an inch. David was with me and he was getting all these ideas about how to make my mobile phone hook up to my laptop so that I could use the Internet while I waited if the future... all good ideas... but I don't think in the coming days it will be like this. Only on the special holidays when the whole school has half a day, b/c most of all the kids in the PreK program stay the full day at school...

...where as Nora and maybe a hand full of others, go home just before lunch time. It's double the tuition to send her a full day -and the only activities they do is lunch (in their classroom) then nap time, and after they wake up they play in the centers. Since I do not work, it doesn't make sense to pay for her to stay all day... I will be going to pick her up and have already been warned to, "Get ready, Mom... she is gonna be bawling and wanting to stay all day..."

So all last week, I had many "talks" with her about this... When I pick you up, if you are happy and smiling and had a great day then you can watch WordWorld and Superwhy at home... if not, no TV for you that day. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.

After lunch at McDonald's with Daddy... we came home and she went straight to her room to hide her happy meal toy in her "collection spot" in her closet and then got in her bed... and wet to sleep. She napped from 1:30 until about 4:30!

This is how I found her when I went up later to get the twins up from their naps. And speaking of the twins... Here was the most exciting moment of their afternoon :P Paul Thomas, as usual.. bulldozing over Olivia!