School Days

For a year now, Nora has been asking me when she can go to school.

“When you’re four,” I’d tell her. “You’ll go to preschool. And then when you’re five, you’ll go to kindergarten.”

This morning, the day finally came. Michael got her out of bed and she popped into our bedroom to see me. “MOMMY,” she said. “I’m SO EXCITED for school!”

Last weekend, we were hyping up school more than ever, and Nora finally confessed, “I’m scared to go to preschool.” Thankfully, the school had an open house on Monday morning during which we could take her to check it out, play with some of the toys, and meet her teachers. After an hour there, Nora was back on Cloud 9 about preschool. She was already singing its praises.

“I LOVE MY SCHOOL!”
“I want to go to school EVERY DAY!”

Michael asked her what her favorite part (of the open house) was, and she exclaimed, “EVERYTHING!”

So, yeah, she was psyched as soon as she got up this morning. The poor thing had to wait until NINE O’CLOCK and she was not happy about that. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her so anxious to go somewhere. She was asking me every five minutes if it was time to go.

Good thing I distracted her for a good half an hour by torturing her with my camera. ;)

I spent a good chunk of time in the last week designing this sign in Photoshop. Much inspiration from Pinterest, of course. I finally got it printed up at Kinkos yesterday, and I’m so happy with how it turned out.

She came up with “apple picker” all on her own, by the way. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I asked her. “What do you mean?” she replied. “What do you want to do for your job? You know, when you go to work. Some people are doctors, or lawyers, or teachers…” I explained. Immediately, she goes, “Apple picker.” Alrighty then. Haha! It cracks me up. I can’t wait to see how her answer changes from year to year. And I’ll always remind her of when she was 4 and wanted to be an apple picker. :) I shouldn’t laugh, actually… maybe she’ll run an orchard some day! It’s just too darn cute.

{This pose was all her. She kills me.}

Finally, it was time to get going. On the way out to the car, we made one more stop in the front yard for a photo of her with her backpack on. Because it just made her look that much bigger.

Michael called us when we were on our way to the school (he was already at work), and got to hear how excited she was for the ride. When we pulled up and parked, she goes, “That was easy!” because apparently it didn’t take as long to get there as she thought it would.

I got her out and she started walking. I took a moment to breathe and take it in. My baby. Walking into preschool for the very first time. I just can’t believe she is this big already. How?

A second after I snapped this photo of her walking all big and independently ahead of me, she turned and held out her hand to me. “Mommy. Hold my hand,” she asked.

My baby is still in there after all. :)

We got inside, she found her own cubby, and hung her own backpack. She responded to the teacher’s greeting, then I watched her beeline straight to the toys to play.

“Mommy,” she said. “Are you going to leave now?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“YAY!” she cheered.

She wants me to let go. She wants to fly.

It’s “only” preschool, but I’m nudging her out of the nest a little. Three mornings a week, she’s testing out those wings.

I hope she maintains this level of enthusiasm through high school.