"Houston, We Have a Preschooler"

This past week signified major change in our house - Maia started preschool.  Feels like we can no longer call her a toddler, but must recognize her as a preschooler.  Comes as a bit of a shock, really.  It's amazing to think of how fast the last 3-4 years have been, and seeing her grow from the little, scrawny baby that fit between by elbow and tip of my hand, to a little girl who seemingly fears nothing and has so much energy and passion for everything, and I mean everything, that she does.

"I'm ready to go!"

The going to preschool was no exception.  She was excited for several days prior to her first day, as we went the week before in the evening for an orientation night.  As we pulled into the parking lot where the school was and told her that we were here, she shouted from the back seat, "That's my school!!"  While Jackie and I dealt with our range of emotions - primarily on the exponential growth of our little girl's world that is about to occur, Maia never wavered from pure excitement.  She seemed to humor us the morning of by letting us take pictures of her, but she was serious about getting to school.  During drop off, upon being reminded by the teachers to wave goodbye to us in the car, she turned, waved emphatically, and marched right into the building without any hesitation [not that I want this any other way; seeing another little kid cry and scream for his mother during drop off was enough to not wish such experience on anyone; I'm just always amazed how Maia just rolls with things].

"Seriously, I'm ready to go."

Her preschool is just two days a week, for a couple hours each day.  As I dropped her off on the second day, she didn't even need to look back to wave.  She started talking up the teacher before she even made it out the car, and right into the school she went.  As I went to pick her up and was waiting in line in the hallway outside her room, the Preschool Director looks at me and asks, "Are you Maia's Dad?"

"Okay, I'm going to go."

I hoped my face didn't betray my look of panic.  I'm thinking to myself, its only the second day, and I know Maia is impulsive and passionate and the very definition of a "free spirit," but surely something didn't happen on the second day of school that they needed to talk to a parent about, right?  Right!?

I couldn't have been more wrong, of course (as with most things with Maia I am learning).  The Director wanted to tell me that Maia had been really concerned about the boy who had cried the first day of school and had asked if he was coming back.  When they told her yes, and the little boy came in, Maia grabbed some books (that's my girl!), went over to the little boy, handed him the books and told him they would make him feel better.

Our (not-so) little preschooler.

Those are the best stories to hear on the second day of preschool.  I'm sure as Maia's world continues to grow through her preschool experience, we will have loads of stories and experiences, certainly some rough ones, but hopefully many like this one, that as a parent, just make you smile and glad, not just in your daughter's actions, but that other people see that "something something" that you think makes daughter so unique and special.

"Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery.