Zoey's First Day of Preschool

I know I keep saying this, but how did today get here so fast??  I was amazed all morning that I was actually getting Zoey ready for not only her very first day of school, but also her very first time being dropped off with someone other than immediate family.

Here she is, symbolically taking her first steps away from our house and onto new independent adventures:

I kept taking photos of her in the yard, at one point she looked at me and said "Can't I go to school already?"

She did great, just like we figured she would.  She waved to the other kids and started playing as soon as we walked into her classroom.  Holly (her teacher) has such a fun room full of bright and interesting things, there is so much for the kids to do.  Although of course, even with all the toys in the room, what did she first make a beeline for?  The tape dispenser:

However, the fishbowl quickly captivated her attention.  I feared for the fish's safety, but surprisingly Zoey didn't try to take it out or feed it any random objects.  At least that I know of.

I helped her pick out a cubby to store her backpack in and stayed for a few minutes to make sure she was ok.  Then I told her I was going to go but I'd be back later to pick her up, that whole speech was actually pretty hard for me.  I got all sentimental and had to take a couple deep breaths not to get teary-eyed.  Zoey on the other hand, didn't even look up from the fishbowl and flippantly just said "Ok, bye Mom".  First of all,  when did I become "Mom"???  What happened to "Momma" or "Mommy"?  I don't know about this school thing, it's aging her already!  At least she had zero anxiety about being left alone there though, it didn't phase her one bit.  I'm relieved, there were a couple kids who were having a tough time, weeping with tears streaming down their faces and hugging their mother's legs while pleading to go home.  I have no idea how you walk out on your child when they're doing that, but I guess you have to.  I'm glad that I was no competition for the wonders of preschool and that Zoey didn't even seem to notice my departure.  

So I went home, drank a cup of coffee and read a magazine while trying not to look at my phone excessively to see if the teacher called telling us either a) Zoey had the separation-anxiety meltdown after all b) Zoey ran away or c) Zoey somehow destroyed the whole school already.  Thankfully there was no phone call.  When I got back to the school to pick her up, the kids were all playing outside and Zoey was doing this:

She was tearing all over the school yard, running as fast as she could, all the while yelling "YAYYYYYY!!!!".  Apparently she didn't miss me.  I let her play for a little longer:

Then when I asked her if she was ready to go home, she said "No I like school, I want to go to school".  I'll make sure to remind her of that when she's 13.  

The teacher said she didn't go to the bathroom when she was there, apparently she was far too much of a busy body to sit on the potty.  But there were no accidents so that's good.  We went home so that she could pee, then went out to eat for a post-preschool celebratory lunch.  

Definitely a good day.