The End of Summer

For me, summer always ends when school begins. And in Cleveland, I am all about fall starting. Not winter. Just fall. I love the crisp air, the smell of rain, and the cooler and non-humid air! Anyway, Adam started school the second week of August, but he was in school all summer anyway so it wasn't a big deal. Olivia, however, started preschool this past Tuesday at Onaway Elementary. She was so excited to be in preschool again. She had been asking over and over when she got to go to school again, although preschool to her is at Miss Jenn's house with her friend Ben. Once we got the phone call letting us know she was accepted into the pre-k program at the elementary, I had to break it to her that this was a new preschool with new friends and new teachers.

For those of you who don't know, Onaway's pre-k program is for kids with special needs and then they add children as "typical peers" into the program. Olivia was screened as a typical peer a couple of weeks ago. I felt like she was auditioning for something and kept telling her before she went into the classroom full of people with clipboards that she had to share and be nice to the other kids. She got into the morning class with an awesome teacher and is gone from Monday through Thursday mornings. Jack was very upset when she left and seems to not know what to do with himself when she's gone.

Olivia loves her class and is so excited to go every day. She loves playing on the play ground, eating snack, playing in the "centers" (like blocks, dramatic play, art, etc) and the fun things they color and glue and paint. Last week she came home with paint on her dress every day, but she had fun and it was washable. She also got to pick out a new backpack because every day her teacher sends home a folder with stuff they made that day as well as things for me to sign or be aware of (like picture day being the second day of school!) and her mini backpack wasn't cutting it. Her new backpack is Disney Princess (of course) and is almost as big as she is- seriously, it goes from her neck to her knees! While she's at school, Jack gets free reign of her room and all the toys, which he loves, but as soon as she gets dropped off he cries and points to her carseat and gets as giddy as a kid in a candy shop when we pick her up. Oh, and Olivia was one of the few kids who didn't cry when I dropped her off (in fact, she kept telling me to leave), but was the only one who cried when I picked her up because she didn't want to go home. She was fine after I told her that she gets to come back to school pretty much every day of her life, and I really hope this "I love school" attitude continues through high school!