Moi did great at school! Finally!

Friday was Moi's 5th time at school without me. Pretty much since the first open house, she decided school was not a place she wanted to go. I think she was partially scared since it was the first time she'd ever been to a place w/o me where she didn't know ANYBODY. Partially, I think she realized this was a place where she couldn't run the show. The first 3 times she cried and hid for 45 minutes under a table and then was fine. The 2nd Friday class, the director of the center sat in with her class b/c there were a bunch of them having coping problems. I guess she sat with Moi and explained to her that she was at school, she needed to be called "Moira" but would she like to play pretend and dress up. I guess that's what finally got her out from under the table, and she's let them call her Moira at school ever since. She was previously in this pretend mode and would get very into whatever character she was in and get very angry and anybody who called her anything different than what she was pretending to be. It was very hard for me who spends every waking second with her to keep up with who she was. I have to say, the 30 second talk the lady had with her has made a huge difference and been very helpful at home as well. Sometimes she gets a little mad if I call her something she doesn't want to be called, but nothing like before. Playgroup even noticed from one Wednesday to the next she was almost even out of that phase. Every now and then she'd shout "but I'm the polar express girl" and you'd acknowledge that, but the week before, she was getting violently angry every time somebody would call her Moira. So that's been really helpful. Tuesday (after the talk) I told her it was a school day and she cried. She calmed down to walk there but cried when I left her. I forgot her backpack that day so I had to walk the 2 minutes home and get it. By the time I got back, all the kids were calm (to be fair, Moi was the ONLY one crying at drop off). When I picked her up the teachers said she did great and barely cried at all. She talked all week about the "blue teacher" and the "pink teacher" (names based on what color shirt they were wearing) and kept saying she LOVED the pink teacher. Out of the blue in the car she just said "I LOVE THE PINK TEACHER". It's funny b/c this teacher definitely seems like the most quiet and reserved out of the group of teachers she has. It doesn't surprise me that this would be the one Moi gravitates to, as anybody who knows Moi knows the way to her heart is to be soft and gentle and kind of half ignore her at first. I didn't know how Friday would go, as that group of kids is having a harder time adjusting. She woke up Friday and I told her it was a school day. She said "I don't want to go. I'm going to cry" but couldn't muster up enough emotion to actually cry. Then she started talking about fun things she was going to do after she "rested a little while". I tried explaining to her that she was the oldest kid in the class and she needed to not cry and be really big and help the other kids who were upset. She said "how about I don't cry, I be happy, and help the other kids who are crying". I said "PERFECT!" She peed, got dressed and was happy the whole walk down. I told her I would say goodbye outside the room and give her a hug and she walked in just fine, not crying one bit. I snuck around to the observation area and I could hear like 3 or 4 kids screaming, but she wasn't crying, just kind of walking around aimlessly. They told me when I picked her up that she didn't cry at all. Whooo hooo!!! She was very proud of herself for being a good girl. I guess all of the kids ended up doing really well after the initial drop off, so that is great! Next Tuesday class is her actual birthday and they asked if we could be the "snack star" again (she was just it on Tuesday and loved being the "star", she got to lead the line like a chooo choo down to the gym, etc) so we are going to bring in a special snack. Hopefully she'll like that. The theme is pumpkins for the week so I am thinking some pumpkin shape cookies with frosting since kids can't seem to figure out how to eat cupcakes, just the frosting off the top. Oh and we went to Cosi after school and she was in the backseat going "B says 'buh', B is for butterfly, B is for Buffalo (which she wants to be for Halloween), B if for banana, B says 'buh'" So she is actually learning something which is a double bonus! I figured this year's school would be just for separation anxiety/socialization purposes. I wasn't really expecting her to learn ABC's and whatnot, but great! She made a box with the letter B on it and she is supposed to be looking for things that start with B to put in it.
Moi asked to sleep in her crib last night after sleeping in her big girl bed for over a week. I think she was over tired and still feels more comfortable in her crib. Plus, I think she had a nightmare in her bed last night (I am writing this at 1:30 am so last night is Thursday, stupid pregnancy insomnia) b/c she said the big girl bed was "too dangerous and scary". In fact, the night before she woke up at one point and I just heard her yell "HEY, THAT'S NOT VERY NICE!" but then she went back to sleep.