First Day of Preschool 2013!

Our 4 year started preschool this week. She is at the same preschool as last year, but will be going four days a week this year instead of two. I often wish I was better at putting in to words how I feel about the kids. She is so many things to me. She is our middle child and there may have been a time when she didn't get as much attention but that certainly is not true now. She is incredibly intelligent. She is always amazing us with things that she knows and remembers. Daddy and I joke that she could probably go to kindergarten this year instead of preschool.
 

She has been so ready for school to start since her brother has been in school for a few weeks!

She learned how to write the first couple letters of her name last year in preschool, and over the summer got pretty good at writing the whole thing. My cousin was impressed at the baby shower a couple weeks ago that she could write her name (Rachel) too! She could recognize nearly all the upper and lower case letters before she started preschool last year at age 3, and she knew them all well by the end of her first year of preschool. That amazed me because our son was still struggling with recognizing some of the letters toward the end of preschool at age 5. I feel like a lot of it is because he was our first and only did one year of preschool; and he is a boy and I have heard that boys are often a little slower in picking up those things than girls are. It is interesting how different siblings can be!

This is her "cute face" as she calls it. She is always making us laugh with the things she says and comes up with!  Lately she has been saying, "Bye, have a great day!" to cashiers at the grocery store or workers in the drive thru at fast food restaurants.  She will also say, "Bye sweetie, or sweetheart."  I told her she really shouldn't call adults sweetie or sweetheart except for her Daddy and Mommy or her grandparents though.   

  

She can write all the letters both upper and lower case pretty well at age 4. She is better at the upper case than the lower case right now.  She is always drawing pictures and writing, and I feel like she has learned a lot of what she knows by seeing and hearing what her brother is learning. She retains everything!  She can write Dad and Mom and her brother's name and can count to 100 with just a few mistakes!  Her brother learned how to count to 100 last year in kindergarten. ;)

We practiced saying her teacher's name for a few weeks before school started, once we found out who her teacher was.  It isn't an easy name for little kids to say, but she can say it pretty well now.  On their meet the teacher day we filled out a form about them and one question was, if they could choose any name for themselves, what would it be?  Her answer: Cupcake.  Ha ha!

Her little sister had to be in a picture too!  She does adore her "E".  I think she is a little bored when her big sister is at preschool.  She is a lot more fun to play with than Mom.  On our way to pick up our son from school one day this week, she was telling our 2 year old to say different things and when she would say them, our 4 year old would say, "that's great, I love it." :)



Her preschool gave a 1st day of school sign for the kids this year.  I thought that was cute, so we snapped a quick picture with their sign as we were walking in to school.



She is watching her teacher write her name on a card.  I really like her teacher from what I know of her so far, and our daughter does too!  You can tell she loves school so much!  Her personality is so much different than her older brother's.  He was pretty nervous to start preschool, and she is so ready to go!  She loves to meet new people and make new friends, where it takes him a little longer to warm up.  I see a lot of myself in her, not so much how I was in school but my personality now. 

I could tell she actually was feeling a little shy on the first day, but she was happy to see her friend! Sarah and I requested the same teacher for this year and I'm so glad we did.  These two cuties were both excited to be in the same class! She also recognized a couple girls in her class from vacation bible school this summer.  She never forgets a face and is usually great about remembering names.  She always knows the names of my friends' kids, even the ones we don't see often because they don't live near us.  I know she will have a great year!!  She tells us she wants to be a teacher, a Mommy, and a hairdresser like Lindsey when she grows up. :)

First day of Preschool 2012 and 2013

These two were both drawing a picture and just carrying on a conversation after school on our daughter's first day.  I love to capture the moments when they are getting along so well and really enjoying each other. 

We are so very proud of you sweet girl!  Although there are still plenty of times when you are more spice than sugar and I think the fighting and scratching and hair pulling is going to drive me crazy, we love each and every part of you!  Have a great year in preschool love!!