My Independent Faith

So proud of my baby today! She did such a great job at preschool. It was our first official day at our parent participation preschool. February is dinosaur themed and Faith loves dinosaurs so she was very excited to go to school today.

However, early mornings are always hard for us because Faith usually sleeps late. For the last few days she slept at midnight, so yesterday I had to interrupt her nap so that she would sleep earlier last night. She slept at 11pm last night, but it would have been earlier if she didn't fall asleep for about 10 minutes on the way home from great grandma's house. Although it was only a 10 minutes nap, it kept her up for another five hours. I'm so jealous of these other mommies when I hear that their kid can wake up from a nap at 5pm and still go down at 8pm. You have to always add about six hours on to whenever Faith wakes up from her nap. Anyways, it took her awhile to get up this morning which gave me some time to load the car and get her dvd player ready. She usually has breakfast with the tv on. It helps her relax and eases her into the day. Since I was rushing her this morning, I wanted to make it was relaxing as possible for her.

Since I wanted to give her the extra few minutes of sleep this morning, she had to have her breakfast in the car. She usually doesn't eat much this way, but it's better than rushing her while she eats at home and then having to deal with a tantrum because we have to stop watching to leave.

She was very excited when we got to school and she saw two dinosaurs at the door. She loves dinosaurs, especially herbivores, because of Dinosaur Train on PBS. It's a great program and there's a great herbivore song called, Hungry Hungry Herbivore. She loves singing the song and asking for a leafwich.

When we got it, there were dinosaur activities everywhere. She went straight to a sorting game and started sorting it into ice tray using tongs. Afterward we did some art using foam stickers. She wanted a picture of a herbivore, so I gave her a triceratops. Then she grab the plants so the triceratops can eat. She was also excited when the teacher showed her, her cubbie so that she can store her pictures and personal belongings.

After she put her picture into her cubbie, she ran over to her favorite room, the dramatic play area. The school has this cool loft that has office equipment. She always say she is like daddy because daddy's office is upstairs in the loft too. Another favorite activity is for us to dress up like Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. They have cowboy hats and the horse on the stick. She loves to ride on the horse, and then lift and swing her hat and yell, "Yeeeha!"

Then she wanted to go outside and play dinosaur excavation. She had a great time digging for the dinosaur bones. Five minutes is about her limit with most activities. Then we moved to another art project. She made two dinosaurs, a triceratops and a t-rex with glue and glitter, rice, sand, and noodle. After finishing both activities she ran to the sand pit and took off her crocs to play in the sand. She used to hate the sand before we went to Hawaii, but now she loves playing it in as long as her shoes are off. She doesn't like the rubbing of the sand on her feet when her shoes are on. I love that she doesn't care about playing in the sand. Also I'm getting better at letting her just enjoy herself without the need of brushing off sand on her. Yeah, I still need to work on the getting dirty.

She was excited when the circle time bell rang. She loves circle time, always has. Although this is our first formal preschool, she has a lot of experience with circle/story time. We started doing music class when she was six months. She also does gym class. We try to make story time every Wednesday at our public library. We have also did a community class once a week for an hour and for a few months this past summer, we did preschool at our house with a couple of our mommy group friends.

The kids got to wear dinosaurs mask and march to "We are the Dinosaurs." Faith didn't wear it on her face, but she did put it on her head. The teacher brought out different types of bones for the kids. She didn't care for the coyote skull, but she liked the smaller bones.

Then it was snack time. The snack mom was so clever, she cut dinosaur shaped sandwiches (bread, turkey, and cheese). I'm going to have to buy some more cookie cutters. Such a cute idea. Although Faith only ate the cheese and turkey.

After snack, I wanted to prepare Faith because although it was our first official day, I had bathroom duty. I was a little concerned that she wouldn't want to play on her own while I was cleaning the bathrooms, but I didn't have to worry I think since this is our third time here and she knows exactly where I'm at, if she needs me, she was comfortable to go explore on her own.

I'm so proud of my little girl!

She played in the areas when she could still check in on me for awhile and then she got bored and asked to go outside on her own. Of course, I enthusiastically said yes. After I finished, I went outside and saw her playing happily with the teacher and a few other kids. They were taking turns walking up a ramp. I can't even express how happy I am to see her so independent and socialize with others.

This parent participation preschool is such a great idea and I really do wished we started earlier. It's helping both of us, because I can relax a lot more as well because all the parents are wonderful at our class. They are very good about making sure their child plays gently and take turns. That is another issue for us. Most kids are a lot more aggressive than Faith and she will never fight back. She is getting better at not letting others grab things from her. We used to have to give her pep talks about telling other kids no and pulling back if people grab her toys.

Faith got to ring the bell for our second circle time. She was very excited about that as well. After listening to the teacher read and singing our goodbye song, she even ran up to give the teacher a hug.

The best part is that she doesn't want to leave. That's such a great sign. I let her run outside for awhile with the other kids and one of the daddy. She had a great time although she fell and got her stocking dirty. She was about to stress over the dirty, but I had to talk her and myself down. "It's just dirt, it's okay, we can wash it when we get home."

What a great day we had! I'm also so proud of her for being such a big girl when I have to go to my physical therapist/therapist/acupuncturist/doctor appointments. She knows and accept who will be home with her, gives me a hug and a kiss, and waves bye mommy, without shedding any tears. Well according to her, she said, "sometimes I still cry." What a big girl!