The Gracie Update: Monday - The First Day of School

Monday was Gracie's first day of preschool. She was excited and I was nervous. We have been reading the "Dora's First Day of School" book and it is a favorite. We read it before she went to sleep on Sunday and again upon awakening -- at Gracie's request. Everytime we talked about her going to school she would smile.

Gracie gets on the bus at daycare and as much as I wanted to be there the first time she got on the bus, I wasn't sure she would go for me. So I went off to work and Gracie's daycare mom got her on the bus and took the awesome pictures you see in the blog. Mandy talked with Gracie before the bus came also. Gracie was very excited to see the bus, she went right up to it with no problem, but did look quite nervous when they put her in the seat. There were no tears. She was my big brave girl.

When she got to school she was very hesitant to get off the bus, but did so and got into line with the rest of the kiddos and performed their arrival routine of washing hands, putting backpacks in their lockers, etc. Gracie had a very busy day. It was no surprise that she enjoyed music time and story time the best, followed by snack time. She got to go swinging with the physical therapist, she participated with some appropriate "no" responses during story time. She also had some good physical exercise of going down the slide. She also picked out colors and colored a "G" for Gracie. When I took that out of her folder last night and oohed and aahed she just beamed. It was no surprise to us that at free play she found a spot on the matt away from the other kids. She is so social with older kids and adults, and loves babies, but does not interact well with kids her own age. This will be something that the preschool teacher will slowly work on with Gracie.

When she got off the bus she was tired and looked like she had a busy morning. It was past lunch and nap time so both of those helped to rejuvenate her. It didn't help that she has come down with a nasty cold, so her nose was constantly running and you could tell she was not feeling perfect.

When I picked her up at daycare she was having fun and didn't want to go home with me. I finally talked her into it and she fell asleep on the way home. That never happens. She awoke in a majorly grumpy mood when we got home and it took some talking to get her to eat her ice cream (our vehicle for getting seizure meds in her). After spitting one spoonful out, the rest went down okay.

She was so tired she didn't want supper, but I wanted her to have some food in her, so I loaded her up in the stroller and put some apple slices and peanut butter crackers in the tray, as well as some juice and we headed outdoors for a stroll. She did eat a little. Then back home to read books, but she was so tired and in such a bad mood that we only read one book and then I put her to bed...at 7:30 p.m. She awoke 45 minutes later wanting to be held. We snuggled until she fell asleep again. She had such a hard time sleeping as she couldn't breathe. So I spent the night holding her, bouncing her, rocking her, laying on the couch with her, sitting up in bed with her propped up to me. Needless to say it is a double caffeine day for me. She fell asleep very soundly at about 4:00 a.m. and got a couple of good hours of sleep. Surprisingly, she was in a great mood today when she woke up. The first thing she told me today was that her baby had "shoes" and pointed to them.

So I sent my runny nose girl to daycare today to rest up for another day of school tomorrow. Tomorrow is picture day and because of her cold, Gracie will look like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.