Big Girl's first day of school

So after a long build up with a lot of tears and tantrums the day finally dawned. We got up around 7, although she'd invaded my bed at 3am and I hadn't had much sleep thereafter. The husband had arranged to go in late so that he could watch the baby while I took Big Girl in. He spent the morning chasing her around the house with an Ella's Kitchen fish pie pouch. Bizarre, but it kept her distracted and meant she didn't get a chance to think about things too much. She was quite excited when she saw her uniform laid out and put it on with no fuss. She happily posed for photos (one below) and was quite keen to head off around 8:30. We only had one, half-hearted, "I don't want to go." We were a little early so we sat in the car for a couple of minutes, and then got out when we saw other people walking to the school.

We waited in the playground for a bit and then when the bell rang and the gates opened we went down to the classroom. We're allowed to go settle them in initially, but normally they walk down by themselves with the teacher. We found her peg and figured out where to leave her lunchbox and book bag. We went into the room and they had little name tags to put on. Only 10 were starting today, 10 start tomorrow and then another 10 on Thursday. I'm glad she was in the first lot, as not having gone to the nursery she doesn't know anyone else and would have been overwhelmed on Thursday.

We had to have a good look around the room and at all the toys. She was a little put out that the bug display she'd seen at her taster session had been replaced by a safari scene. She was very impressed by the role play corner though, it was set up as a doctor's surgery.

When the second bell went I told her it was time for me to go. She was a little bit clingy and started tearing up a bit but the teacher came over and held her hand and took her to play with the other children and she was ok.

When I picked her up she said it was "Really good!" and gave me a picture of her that they'd made for their first day. She waited to say goodbye to her teacher, who she seems to have taken to and she said she made a friend, but she can't remember her name.

Of course the best thing about the day according to her was being taken for a special celebratory tea at McDonalds.

So generally relief all round and here's hoping the rest of the term goes as well!

Here's a picture of her in her uniform, looking angelic.