Her First Day

Breakfast for the road

17 August 2010. Ava started German kindergarten on this day!
 
At 0730, Mommy, Daddy and Stevie loaded up in the van to accompany Ava on her trip to Wismannsdorf (about 10 minutes from our house) to where her school is located. Ava was absolutely excited, from bedtime the night before - ALL the way until we got to the school! When we pulled up in the parking lot, Ava took one look at the building and excitedly proclaimed "SCHOOL!!! YAY!!!" (deep in my mommy brain though, I knew what lurked behind the walls of that happy building!)

Ava's kindergarten!

Once inside, all of the teachers were so excited to welcome her, not realizing that Ava is by no means a "morning person" and definitely needs about an hour of personal time/space to come around! All of the smiles and wide eyes from everyone just kind of pushed her over the edge. She hung on tightly to her new Tinkerbell backpack, and cried when one of the teachers offered to take it for her. There was a bit of a death grip on mommy's leg as well as she whimpered "Mommy, wait me!" (she didn't want me to leave her.) :(

So... I unpacked her breakfast and her cup of chocolate milk and tried to get her to sit down and eat breakfast with the other little kids...

But she was having no part of it. She knew that the little red chair meant she was staying, and I was leaving. So we smiled one more time for daddy's camera...

Well, I smiled anyway... and then it was a quick hug/kiss for Daddy and sister so they could make their exit. I waited behind another 10 minutes... walked her to her classroom and tried to occupy her worries with puzzles, books, and her beloved baby stroller that she "claimed" at orientation a couple of months ago! She finally settled into playing house with Ms. Maggie, her teacher and I made a silent exit. She did great for the rest of her first day!

Second morning - she woke up TOTALLY excited to go to school. Got dressed, rode with daddy, hugged and kissed him goodbye and galloped off to find the teddy bear she'd adopted the day before and eagerly picked up where she left off! She had so much fun on the second day in fact, she cried because she didn't want to leave :o

Today was her third day of school... I had to wake her up, or else she would have overslept. (anyone who's had to wake a NON morning toddler knows that personal hell!) She zombie-walked to the couch where she threw herself down and grumbled "I no wanna go school..." but I managed to get her clothes on her and when she was dressed with shoes on her spirits picked up a little. I drove her this morning, and had to spend some time reassuring her that I'd be back at noon to pick her up. She finally gave me a goodbye kiss and let me go willingly :) When I picked her up, she had been playing in the gymnastics room with the other kids, running/jumping/climbing and LAUGHING!

Might I also include that while driving her to school this morning, she was sitting in her carseat, hugging her Tinkerbell bag... I absolutely LOVE Ava's little munchkin voice, and this morning made me love it even more... I looked at her in the mirror and she smiled up at me and said "Mommy, I so happy!" Awww... CRY!