On her way to running the world

It's not that I would call my daughter bossy... well... yeah maybe that's the best explanation for her. But a more "parent" term would be to call her a leader, one who takes her responsibilities seriously, or (and this might be my favorite), she's sure of herself and her abilities. This is something that I really try to instill in her. Independence, and self esteem, it's something I sure never lacked at her age and I feel it's served me well. All of this to say that she has found her environment. Haley started Preschool this fall at a really great Co-Op school. Up front Co-Op means that every 6-8 weeks the parents get to go into the classroom to help out the teacher, we provide snacks, and help with clean-up, but I also get a great insight into how my child behaves in an educational environment, one with her peers, not just her brother.

To say that she loves school wouldn't quite let you fully understand what a part of her life this has become. She lives to go to school. When we tell her it's a school night, we might as well tell her Santa's coming too. It's a big deal. We set her clothes out the night before and she always seems to wake up a few minutes earlier on school days. She doesn't complain as much about me doing her hair because it's "for school" and on those occasions when her behavior lacks a little lustre, it's great to be able to hold it over her head. I sure hope that still works when she's in high school.

So I mentioned that we set her clothes out the night before. I'm just going to fess to this before someone rats me out... her dress is on backwards for all of these pictures. For the record, she dressed herself the first morning of school and the only thing that denotes the back of the dress from the front (aside from a tag) is a little button that should be on her collarbone, instead it's on her back shoulder. Whatever. We all made it out the door on time, and she made it to school, what can you do. I guess she and Kale are now even - in his first pictures I put his little Nike's on backwards. Whatever. Go ahead, take away my Mom of the Year prize, I'm sure I've lost it from lots of other infractions, but we just won't go there.

So her backpack is an adorable preschool size pack from the North Face. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Turns out they send a lot of stuff home in preschool... giant works of art, normal size pieces of paper... lots of things... and a preschool size backpack is actually not anywhere near an appropriate size. Have I replaced it yet? No. I refuse to buy into Dora, and all the other commercial characters until I absolutely have to.

Haley and her good friend Yanni, who also started school the same day, but a different class.

Probably one of my most favorite pictures ever. Ever. EVER.

Dropping her off at the door, this is Mrs. Cooper, Haley's head teacher (there's also Mrs. Rose who's her classroom helper everyday). She was fine, not one tear, or even hint of sadness or nerves, she was ready. Me? Yup, I was fine too, I knew how excited she was and was excited for her, this was the beginning of what Jeff and I can only hope is a long and successful educational career. Kale? He yelled "Sissy!" "Sissy NOW!" all the way down the hall in tears. What would he do with out her? Just so you know... Mom is not nearly as fun to hang out with as Sissy is. But he's figuring it out which is turning out to be a learning process for him too.