A Momentous First Day in School for Natalie

Today was Natalie's first day of Montessori School. She's starting at 3 days a week from 8:30-3:00. We started getting her ready this morning, complete with her backpack, which made her a little top-heavy and a little more wobbly than usual. Overall, she was in a great mood and sang along with Mom on drive to school. The initial experience at the school was a little traumatic for Mom and Dad though - one of the teachers whisked Natalie away once we entered to help minimize her separation anxiety - unfortunately, this had the opposite effect on Mom and Dad. Soon after, we went to an observation area in the hall where we could observe how wonderfully Natalie was settling in. While she looked a little sad at first, she quickly became very interested in what all the other kids were doing.

Shortly after noon, Mom received a call from the teacher, Ms. Vicky, to let us know that Natalie was doing very well - she didn't cry too much and was very active with the teachers and other kids. There was just one issue - Natalie was interested in taking some of the food from other kids because we had packed her usual lunch instead of finger foods, which are better for the kids to feed themselves with.

Just before 3:00, Mom and Dad came back to collect Natalie - at that time, she was having a snack with the rest of her class which has a total of 6 children including Natalie (3 boys and 3 girls). When Natalie first saw us, she was surprised and very happy. She smiled, laughed and started blowing kisses as soon as she was in Mom's arms. We're excited to see how well she'll do when she goes back to school on Monday. Please note that some of the pictures of Natalie at school are a little blurry because we had to take the photos through a pane of glass without a flash.