Reality

I'm not sure what happened this morning...  Emma was so excited all morning to get ready for preschool.  She put her snack in her backpack, got dressed in a new shirt, gathered up the mystery bucket and raced to the van.  We talked about school on the way to the preschool, I parked the van, got out and opened up her door, only to find her in tears!  She was crying and saying things like, "Please don't leave me? When will you be back?  I don't want to go to school!"  If you know Emma at all - this is NOT like her!  I was totally shocked!

I took her in to the school with her clinging to me, got her backpack and coat off and attempted to get a smile out of her.  She asked if I would take her to the bathroom, so we did.  I just kept talking to her and telling her how much fun she was going to have, especially when she got to show everyone what was in the mystery bucket (like show and tell).  As we left the bathroom, she was doing a bit better.  She found her name on their attendance wall and then I got her settled at the table she was supposed to be at.  I was able to give her a big hug and tell her goodbye and she seemed okay (a bit subdued, but okay).

I worried a bit about her this morning and Ben definitely noticed that she wasn't around.  Last week was so busy with me babysitting Levi & Will, having Grandpa Nichols here, etc that Ben was kept very occupied.  Today he was finding it very quiet and 'boring'!  We played Lego together for quite a while, but about every half hour he kept asking when we were going to get Emma from school.

The time finally came (and then he didn't want to go... go figure), and we headed down to get Emma.  Ben decided he wanted to come in, so we went in and waited for her to come in from playtime outside.  When she saw us there, she bounced over to us with a huge smile!  She was back to her normal, happy, excited self.  (Thank goodness!)  She had had a wonderful time and was excited to tell us all about it.

I'm guessing it was just a bit of nerves this morning, so it will be interesting to see how she is on Wednesday when she goes again!  Hopefully it was a one time thing!