First Day of School!

Today was a milestone in our lives.  Jillian started school!  We finished all her evaluations and had her IEP meeting on March 25th.  She qualified for special ed services in Communication, Social and Gross Motor skills (I'll put up details another time).  They said the best route was preschool.  So she now attends preschool at a local elementary school, Monday-Thursday 1:00pm-3:30pm.  Her teacher is Miss Myrna and she's quite adorable.  Jilly will also get Occupational and Speech therapies in class. It is an exciting step for her (and us) and we think it will be the best thing for her.  She was quite excited this morning to go!

She really loves the Dora backpack she picked out at Target.

Such a big girl, walking down the stairs all by herself.

But even in the car, she refused to let go of her backpack.  She loves the thing soooo much.  On Saturday, she wore it for a chunk of the day, even telling Steve at one point that she was "going to work".  Hehehe

It was a full family event to take her for her first day.  Daddy walked her to class, while Mommy photographed and carried Jason.

Once we got inside, we hung up her coat and backpack in her cubby and she went to go play right away. 

It was time for us to go and there were no tears, from either her or me.  I was quite proud of us both.  It was a little weird for me to leave my tiny little 3 year old at a school I didn't know well. (She looked so little in the big room, especially with all the other elementary school kids around!)  But it was fine.  She is in good hands.

We went home, Jason had a nap and otherwise, we just relaxed.  It was kind of nice to not have a little girl coming along behind us, tearing everything apart. ;-)  Soon enough it was time to go get her.  I went to her classroom as they were finishing music time; it was Raffi, so I knew she was fitting in well.  ;-)  The report was that she had a good day.  There are only two other girls in the class, so they were thrilled to see Jilly.  :-)  She didn't want to sit still for very long, but when they needed to re-direct her, she went along with it happily.  ::sigh of relief::  I think she's going to do well!

Jilly did fine leaving school, until I had to buckle her car seat.  Then she got mad.  So I gave her her sunglasses on the way home.  As we walked into the house, she was still wearing them.

We went upstairs and got hugs and kisses from Daddy.

It was an interesting day for us!  It's going to be neat to watch her learn and grow in preschool. She is just going to thrive, I'm sure!  Soon, she'll take the bus to and from school, but right now we're driving her to make the transition easier (plus they didn't have it set up yet).  Our little Birdie is so grown up!