Today is a milestone.  Zoë started school.  Only part-time for the rest of this year.  She officially starts in August, but the school invited her to start part-time for the last two months of school.  The idea is to help with the transition to school for next year.  We toyed with the idea of starting her in January, but decided to wait until Fall.  She is doing four weeks of summer camp at school, so this opportunity will be a good transition for her from daycare to school.

Someone took her scissors this morning and there were almost tears until I told her to just get another pair and that this was school and everyone shared everything.  She struggled when it was meeting time, because she was set on cleaning up and cleaning up everything.  She was telling the boys “guys we have to clean up. GUYS. WE. HAVE. TO. CLEAN. UP.  Then she’d run to tell her teacher that the boys weren’t cleaning up.  But I reminded her that she has to listen to her teacher, even if she thinks she needs to do something else.  She conceded to mom and went to sit with one of her teachers.

I stalked from the windows and was happy and sad at the same time.  She is my baby, but not so little anymore.  It makes me realize how I’m slowly becoming more of a spectator in their life and while I am happy they are independent, it is also a little sad.  But they need to grow and flourish and I can’t stand in their way.  I have to trust that I am doing my job well and I’ll keep watch through the window.