First Day of School 2012

So I totally didn't mean to take a blog break, but this full-time-working-mom-thing is no joke!  Add in football season for Tray and I'm pretty much a SINGLE-full-time-working-mom.  I started work on September 4th, and as you'll see, Emma started school on the 5th.  A lot has happened in the past month, but I wanted to go in order for memory's sake.

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As soon as I got the call that I had my job back, I started looking for a school for Emma.  I was very pleased with where she went when she was 3 months, but it was a little far from where I'd be working, so I wanted to try and find something closer.  

Luckily one of the schools that I'd heard about from former clients had a spot open in Emma's age group.  It's a Mother's Day Out program, but they offer a full time schedule with extended hours.  I jumped at hearing that they had one last spot and we registered her on the same day that we went to visit.  

I felt really at peace in the couple of weeks leading up to work and at one point I even told Tray "I really haven't cried at all about Emma going to school." Well, I clearly spoke too soon and I instantly started to cry as soon as the words came out of my mouth. 

 Deep down though I knew that I needed to go back and Emma would adjust and it would be a great thing for all of us.  And I really and truly do love my job.

After seeing all of the cute Pinterest ideas, I knew I had to document Emma's first day!

I ABSOLUTELY love how it turned out and I can't stop smiling every time I see this picture!  Seriously, could she be any cuter?!

Our photo shoot didn't start out exactly like I had in mind though.  Unfortunately Tray had an early meeting at school, so he couldn't go with me to drop off Emma and he wasn't at home for pics.  

We did the best we could and I can't help but laugh at some of these pics.

"What's this mom?"

"Ugh.  Do I have to?"

"Grrr. You woke me up early for this?!"

Finally!

Once we moved outside I didn't realize the sun was so bright, but we were already running late so I just had to go with it.

My new favorite picture!

Once we got to school I tried to get a picture of her backpack, but it just made her fall down!

She looked so happy here, but it didn't last for long.

This was the only picture I took inside, and then it was time to leave.

She didn't cry right at first, but as soon as I started to leave the tears and screaming started.  We were both crying and then I really broke down in the car.  It was SO hard to leave her and I wanted to call every 5 minutes to check on her.

The first time I called it was around 10:00 and by that time they had already been to music and played outside.  The report was good and apparently she "had a blast" in music.  It was just what I needed to hear!

I called again around 1:00 and she was already napping.  I was shocked because I thought for sure that she wouldn't sleep on her nap mat, but she proved me wrong.

I was finally able to pick her up around 3:30 and as soon as she saw me she went nuts and started crying and freaking out again.
When we got home she was clingy and whiny, but who wouldn't be?!  We watched some Sesame Street and just hung out.  You can tell in this next picture that her eyes are puffy :(

So worn out!

Now that we're a month into our new life, things are much better!  She has almost completely adjusted to school and we're all so happy!  By the end of the second week there were no more tears at drop off (from either of us, ha!) but she will still occasionally cry when I pick her up.  Basically, if something or someone is in the way of her running to me, she'll still cry.  The worst is if they're changing her diaper when I get there.  Those times still involve crying and screaming, but she's fine as soon as I hold her and all is right again.

I can already see that she has a couple of little friends in her class and of course all the teachers love her!  I'm pretty sure that if they had a "best dressed award" they would give it to Emma because they always like to see what she's wearing and one of the teachers even said "Does she have a different outfit for every day?!  She hasn't repeated anything yet!"  And yes, that IS true.  We haven't repeated an outfit in a whole month, but what can I say?  Little girls are so much fun!

  The biggest surprise is that she was taking naps from day 1.  Apparently her teachers missed the memo that she needed her paci to sleep, so for the first few days they had to rub her back for a while.  Once they started giving her the paci, apparently she started falling right to sleep and sleeping the WHOLE time!  I still want to see picture proof of that!

Overall I'm SO SO happy with how things are going right now!  I love getting her artwork every Friday and I love hearing the other little ones say her name when she gets there!

Whenever I talk about going to school she'll say "skool?  play!"  and make the sign for play.  So sweet!

Of course, I would love to still be home with her every day, but I still feel so incredibly BLESSED that I get to have the job that I do and that Emma is at such a great place with teachers that love and care about her!