She's a trooper

I was so excited to write today about how it was the third day at Ellie's new school and still no crying, but alas I can not say that. Sigh.

Over all, though, it's gone so much better than expected. The first day she made it very apparent that she didn't want me to leave. I read her a book and then told her that Miss Amanda would read her the next one. She whined "Mommy stay. Mommy sit down. Mommy sit down pease!" as I left, but she didn't actually cry. She told me she wanted to go outside and play and I said she would do that later and I'd pick her up after work. She said "kay."

I cried. She didn't. I know the tears are hard to bear, but so are the words. She made it so apparent that she really wanted me to stay, and even asked nicely! Which is worse? I'm not sure. But at least there were words AND tears.

Yesterday was similar. I read her a book and Miss Amanda would read the second book. Ellie asked me to stay again, but no tears. Her request for me to stay didn't seem quite as saddening.

This morning she cried. Maybe it was because I didn't read her a book? I left her eating breakfast with Brynn instead. Or maybe it's just all starting to sink in now - that she has a new school. As we pulled up to the school she said "No want to go new school" though she also said this yesterday.

If you gauge our success of the new school based on our morning experiences, I'm not sure what conclusion you'd come to. But like I said, it's going better than I feared.

On the other hand, if you gauge the success based off of our evening experiences, I think you'd agree with me that it's impressive. In two days at school, she's gone pee-pee in the potty three times and poo-poo once. Her naps are normal and she's eating normally. The teachers claimed it's as though she's been there the whole time.

What's most impressive to me, though, is that she doesn't drop everything she's doing to run to me when she sees me. She would do this at the old daycare, and trust me, I loved it. There is nothing better than seeing your daughter running across the room for a hug, as though you're the best part of her entire day. However, it's interesting to see her now look up at me and go back to playing, as though to say "Oh, hi there Mommy" like it's no big deal. Doesn't that say she's enjoying herself? Even when I ask her if she wants to go home, she says no. We diddle-daddle around for a while before leaving. I think this is more telling than anything else. Don't you?

It's too bad she had to cry this morning (even if it was just for a minute). She's been doing so well with such a big change that I've put it on my list of "we don't give these little ones enough credit, do we?" Let's hope the crying doesn't become a routine again.