Grace's School - Part III

The REAL day of school happened today. No Mom on the premises!

So how else would we prepare for this momentous occasion than by throwing an epic sized tantrum over our outfit?

I didn't know a 2 year old could or would care about their clothing choices but I was wrong.

Grace cares. A LOT!

I had heard that if you give a kid a choice, you will pay for it so when it was time to get dressed in the morning, I went to put the outfit I had previously picked out - some capri shorts and a top - and was met with gargantuan screams. She wanted to wear a dress! Of course she did. 

The next bit of friendly parental advice I've received is to give the kid two choices: Option A - the shorts and Option B - a lovely skirt.

Again, met by screams.

I'm telling you, if this is any indication what it is going to be like leading up to prom, I plan on being out of town that day. I'll hand that one off to Dad and his shotgun.

Anyway, we finally settled on a grey cotton dress with pink stripes. Perfect. It would be comfy and because it had matching leggings, it would be warm in the cool mornings and keep her from flashing her Hello Kitty underpants to the world.

Again, screams.

There would be no leggings had by Miss Grace. I even bargained with her. You can wear one white shoe and one black shoe - Grace's signature fashion trademark - if you wear the leggings...

This is a bad picture but you can see who won this fight...

Let's see...no leggings and one white shoe and one black shoe. 

Grace clearly won.

I'm telling you, this starting school thing has done NOTHING but kick my A**!

In other school news, I told Grace that I was leaving and she acted like she didn't care. I took that as a good sign. I pulled a total stalker mom move and found a window where I could see her but she couldn't see me and snapped this picture with my iPhone. The bright, white being is Grace. So far, so good. 

No tears.

So I left. Which felt so strange leaving Grace behind. But me and Charlotte had things to do - music class.

For the last two weeks, Nana brought Charlotte to music class while I got Grace adjusted at school. The reports had been that Charlotte was very active and very social.

I was not prepared for how social and how active little Miss Charlotte was.

First of all, when we walked into the Community Center, the women at the desk stopped what they were doing and said hi to Charlotte! We got to class and all the moms and Grandmas said hi to Charlotte. It was so weird...it was like a little fan club. And Charlotte marched up to each and every person in class - kid, mother or grandmother - stared them in the eyeballs and gave them huge smiles. She spent nearly as much time on the lap of a nearby (unrelated) Grandmother as she did on my own lap. When it was time to "play" the instruments, she banged away on the drum and strummed the guitar.

Not. Shy. At.  All!

She was front and center during story time

and at one point I had to scoop her off the floor because she was doing a backwards-caterpillar-break- dance-type move that was slightly inappropriate on the wood floor. Clearly distracting the students in class! It was really fun watching Charlotte enjoy herself and dance to the music! 

The best part of the day was picking Grace up. Again, I pulled a stalker mom move and spied on her.

No tears. Lots of playing. Looks like this is in the bag!

After pick-up, I talked to the teacher and the parents helping in class and they reported that Grace did in fact cry for a bit but after a while got in the swing of things.

Progress!

When I asked Grace if she had fun at school, she said yes!

When I asked her if she wanted to go back next, she said yes!

And when I asked her if she was going to cry next time, she said yes!!

Next week will be REALLY interesting because Court and I are going out of town for two days without the girls. Those two days happen to fall on a school day! So Nana gets the "lucky" job of dropping Grace off at school.

Stay tuned!