(2nd) first day of school!

she refused to pose without tanner this morning.

i cannot believe that i'm actually excited for emily this year. last year, i think i cried at just the thought of her being in school. not that i didn't want her apart from us, i just worried that maybe she would be scared and the teachers couldn't console her, or that they wouldn't know if she was hungry/thirsty/sad, or that the other kids wouldn't play with her or would hurt her feelings. some of these things still worry me, but only because emily, rather than cry when she's upset or scared, will just sit quietly. i think she's a lot like me when i was a child. except she's much happier! she loves school and playing with her friends. so i have no doubt that she will love her new class. most all of the kids from her old class will be with her. except for the kid that she loves the most- aaron.

so this is what i had originally wrote: for the first time in her life, she will be separated from aaron. (he is only 5 1/2 weeks younger than her, but they made January the cutoff, so he's in the "young 2s" class). we've tried to prepare her, and we think she understands, but sometimes she will say, "aaron will be there?" she knows she's going to her new "big girl classroom" and she'll get new teachers- ms. phyllis and ms. marissa, but i'm not sure how she'll handle her first day. i've had nightmares (i'm not even kidding) about her realizing that her beloved ms. robin and ms. annie and aaron were not with her. but i know she will do great and love this year! and last night, i couldn't sleep b/c i kept dreaming about forgetting to pack her lunch/snack or forgetting other necessities.

here is the revised version: poor aaron, after somewhat "settling" into his new class without em, they picked up and moved him. to be with em! when the director went into his class to get him, he was just fine. but as soon as she said, "do you want to go see emily?" he cried! happy tears, of course! i was still spying on em when he came down the hall with all of his things, still whimpering. when em saw aaron come into her class, she smiled sooo big! and i almost started crying happy tears, too.

i got her a new outfit for her first day of school (a pretty hot pink smocked dress...which, btw, when will she be too old for these? i'm afraid it'll be soon. boo), but decided at the last minute that maybe she should wear something with her monogram on it so the teachers won't forget her name. (they already know her from last year, though. i'm hoping she remembers them, too).

she also got a new backpack (purple and green) and lunch box, too. i remember seeing the bento box trend a while back, before em was ready for bento boxes, but my friend tricia just reminded me of them. so i'm giving it a try. my creation is not nearly as pretty as tricia's, but i hope em is excited and eats most of it.

em wanted to curl her hair for her first day of school. i even gave her a spritz of hairspray. she was so happy.

she was excited on the way to school, but as soon as we got there, she got quiet and i could tell she was nervous. she told me she wanted to play with her cousin, then asked about ms. robin and ms. annie. (btw, i peaked in on her old class and could not believe how tiny the babies looked. i forget that's how tiny em was this time last year). she didn't run into school, like she did just 2 weeks ago. instead, she made me carry her the whole way. when we got to her class, she walked right in. she was timid, but there were no tears. ms. marissa knew how to get em in her comfort zone and immediately asked em if she could see em's shoes :).

and btw, her new teacher told us that ms. annie went to check on her big kids this morning and warned the teachers not to let clementine near emily or lauren. remember clementine? the bully? apparently, she hasn't changed b/c ms. annie told them she is too rough and em and lauren are too sweet.

here are some pictures of our big girl!

it was baby's first day of school, too. she even made daddy take a picture with baby only.

her baby

and my baby


horrible picture, but each child has an assigned seat and they are decorating their pencil boxes this morning. they are growing up :(

ya-ya! (em has started calling him that again)

aaron in his little 2s class, before they moved him to em's class.