Preschool

 Melanie had her first day of preschool on August 24th.  She was very excited to start going to school and get to know her teacher and classmates, or "new friends" as she likes to call them.

 The day started with Claire going in to wake Melanie up, which Claire has now adopted as part of her morning routine.  (Wake up too early, lay down with mom for another hour or so, wake up for real this time, get mom's cell phone and water, wake up Melanie, change diaper, eat breakfast, get dressed and continue on with your day.)

 To show how truly excited Melanie was about preschool, that morning while I was still washing Claire up and clearing the table from breakfast Melanie proceeded to go upstairs so she could get ready.  I assumed she would just take off her pajamas and wait for me like usual, insisting that she needed my help (even though she's been capable of dressing herself with very little help for quite some time now).  I turn around to find Melanie sitting on the stairs wearing her shorts and Claire's shirt (a 6-12 month shirt no less!) and diligently working on getting her socks on with her shoes and backpack at the ready right behind her.  I had laid the girls' clothes out the night before so I would have one less thing to think about in the morning and Melanie took it upon herself to start getting ready since I was obviously taking too long clearing the table.  I had to laugh at her and snap a picture before heading up back upstairs to put on her shirt and get her hair ready.  Excited indeed!

 My big girl with the jar of blackberry jam she gave to her teacher as a first day of school gift.

 I asked Melanie if she was excited to go to preschool and she enthusiastically said "Yeah!" so I told her to make an excited face and this is what she gave me :D

 Melanie and her teacher, Miss Ginger

No tears from our Miss Melanie.  The five kids in front of her were all crying when their moms dropped them off and Melanie got a rather confused look on her face as we waited for her turn to go in the room. We had done lots of talking about how she would get to stay with Miss Ginger and her new friends and Claire and I would leave so she could stay and learn and have fun and then Claire and I would come back to get her.  The crying kids seemed to confuse her a bit so I squatted down next to her and  said "I think those kids might be a little sad and miss their moms.  Do you think you could be their friend and help make them happy?"  to which she simply replied "Yeah."  When her turn came to greet the teacher she handed Miss Ginger the jar of jam we had brought, gave her a hug, turned so I could take their picture and walked right past the crying kids in to the room and started looking around, ready to start the day.

And no, I didn't cry either.  That's not to say I didn't have a good sized lump in my throat, but I held it together.  I did however take Claire to Target after we left and indulged in some retail therapy in the form of a few cute fall outfits for the girls (despite the fact it was still in the 90s outside).  Claire did very well during her first significant amount of time without her older sister as well.  I figured my having some time devoted to just Claire would be good for her on several levels, one of which being language (she obviously knows words and such, she just doesn't talk much since Melanie does all the talking for her).  I had no idea how quickly she would take advantage of the silence left by Melanie's temporary absence though.  Claire jabbered the entire 2 1/2 hours Melanie was gone!  I'm talking non-stop.  It was quite impressive, to say the least!

 To celebrate her first day of preschool Matt came to pick Melanie up from school with us and we all went to have pizza at Talliano's as a special treat.

Happy pizza face

Proudly showing off the hand prints she made on the first day.
(Displayed with some of the magnets I bought while attending my "retail therapy" session that morning)

She's been going to school for a month now and she's just as excited as when school first started, telling us what she learned each day and singing songs she learns in class.  Now if we could just guarantee that kind of excitement for the rest of her school career we'd be all set! ;D