Here We Go Again

This morning, Dean and I took Ella to the Welcome Tea at her school. This is the first day of school for the older kids, but for the younger kids (pre-K 3, 4, and K), they have this Welcome Tea, where the parents hear about all of the many wonderful opportunities for volunteering at the school (yippee!), then the kids and parents go to the classrooms to meet the new teachers and have the enormous stack of forms we need to fill out explained to us one by one. This would all be very nice and helpful if I were unable to read. However, since my very profession requires not only that I be able to read but also that I be a careful reader with an eye for detail, I could really skip this part of the process.

Last year, Ella cried at the Welcome Tea. She was, in fact, the only child to shed tears at the Tea. She literally would not leave my side, and I worried about how she would adjust to school and whether or not she would make friends.

Now that a year has passed and both Ella and I have made many preschool friends, it has become sort of a joke among the other mothers that Ella was the one who cried at the preschool tea. Because of all her classmates, Ella really ended up assuming a leadership role. And I know that the other moms would most definitely not describe Ella as either shy or timid. Even that first day of school, she walked right in the door without giving me a backward glance.

I've talked a lot recently about Ella's behavior issues, simply because they worry me and I sometimes feel incompetent as a parent--like I should know how to handle things better than I actually end up handling them. What you probably do not hear as much about is what an extrordinary child Ella is. When I see her with a group of her peers, especially in a school environment, I am really struck by what a confident child she is. She has a strong personality and a definite sense of herself. These are traits that sometimes drive me crazy, but they are also qualities that will make her a pretty neat adult. Last year, Ella was known to lead a classmate into school by the hand if a child was having a hard time separating from their parent. Friends of mine talk about how personable and social Ella was at daycamp, often leading the front of the line and just having so much enthusiasm for everything. Everywhere we go, she recognizes kids from either camp or school.

So a year has passed since our first experience with school. And at this year's tea, I barely knew where Ella was half the time. She was off talking to this friend or that. She looked happy and confident and just so heartbreakingly grown up. While we were listening to the teacher give her little spiel in the classroom, the children were supposed to be in their seats (which have already been labeled with their names). Most of the kids were too antsy to do this. But Ella sat the whole time, chatting with the two little girls sitting near her and not once looking around to see where Dean and I were. My baby is growing up....

There are pictures. I promise to post them later.