Tessa Goes to School

Tessa started preschool today, which made Mommy, Daddy and Tessa very happy. We drove her there so that we could take a few pictures and deliver some paperwork to the teacher. She didn't mind at all when we left. She is in the same class as Lina, a neighborhood friend and she got to wave to Madeleine, Lina's sister, on our way in. A few weeks ago we visited the class and stayed for an hour, so she wasn't completely new to it.

Knocking on the door...(our mornings are quite cold these days)

She was acting shy when I asked to take her picture with Mrs. Lichtsinn.

Her classroom and classmates.

Her class is a mixed program that has some typical children and some with special needs. This program offers transportation to all the students. She was thrilled when I told her she could ride the bus to and from school, just like Phoebe does. The one bringing her home is a smaller bus. On Friday, she will take the big bus to school with all of the big kids. We'll see how she handles that trip, but there aren't many things in life that intimidate Tessa. She seemed like such a big girl today but she looked so small climbing off the bus!

And taking advantage of her new "big girl" status, we had a binky farewell ceremony this evening. She napped without it after she got home from school, because I told her that only big kids go to school and big kids don't need binkies. I told her if she could sleep without it we would get a "big girl" treat after dinner. She cried for it briefly, but not as bad as I imagined. We went to Cold Stone Creamery and she handed the server her binky and her free birthday coupon in exchange for her ice cream sunday (strawberry with MandMs). She asked for the binky back a few times after she got her ice cream, but she never cried for it. We high-fived her several times and complimented her on how big she was. Then we said "goodbye!" to the binky as we left. She asked for it again at bedtime, but seemed content with just her blanky. A baby no more....