Reagan's First Day of Preschool!

Here she is, my BIG GIRL, looking as cute as can be on her first day of preschool!!! She's still 2 years old, yet it's her second year of preschool ... isn't she still my baby? Oh, how quickly time passes! Of course, I took LOTS of pictures and couldn't decide on just a few favorites, so I've posted many of them ... I'll add my commentary in between pictures, just to break it up :)

So, last year in preschool, a favorite color emerged ... RED! Ms. Lisa was the one who recognized that she always seemed to choose red whenever they sat down at the craft table. I can honestly say she's stayed true to her favorite color and she's never wavered.

There are days when I pull something out of Reagan's closet and put it on her without giving her an opportunity to agree or protest (simply because this is the easiest method for me!), and then there are days when I open the closet and let her choose. As most moms can agree, this can be a time-consuming event! A few weeks ago, she said she wanted to wear red. She kept pointing to a red dress that she wore at Christmas time, which I informed her was now too small and too dressy for everyday wear. She was determined to wear RED, and I realized I had nothing else that was red in her closet. The next day, I asked her what she wanted to wear for her first day of preschool and she told me she needed a RED SHIRT! How could I deny her?

So, yesterday I took Reagan and Avery to Paramus Park Mall, in search of a red shirt for her first day. After looking through many stores and shirts of every other color, I finally came across this shirt at the Gap. And who could resist the matching red shoes??? I couldn't help myself :) I mean, a child's first day of school only comes around once a year, right? While we were at the mall, I kept telling her we were going to Michael's later to find some matching ribbon so I could make clippies for her hair. Once we were in the car, she said, "when we get there, I'm going to say hi to Michael." I couldn't help but chuckle at her confusion, then I tried to explain, "No, Michael's is the name of the store we're going to ... there's no one there named Michael." She thought about it for a minute then said, "When we get to the store, I'll say hello to Michael." I accidentally fell asleep last night as I was laying down with Reagan and didn't wake up again until 2:30 AM. It occurred to me that I hadn't yet washed her new red shirt so she could wear it for school at 9:00 AM! So I rushed downstairs and did a load of laundry. Then I realized I still needed to make her matching hair clippie, so I sat down and made hair accessories. I'm sure it sounds silly, but I was so excited for Reagan's first day of school, that I didn't feel like going back to sleep (guess I had a surge of adrenaline!). So, I stayed up the rest of the morning, making hair bows, doing laundry, updating my blog, etc.

Avery and her loving sister Reagan

They are always so sweet together :)

The morning went very smoothly, until we got in the car and pulled out of the garage. Reagan has developed a strong dislike of the bright sun in her eyes when she goes outside. I finally bought her some sunglasses and this has helped immensely! So whenever you see pictures of her with sunglasses on, it's not because I'm trying to make her look like a little diva, it's because she loves to wear them for functionality! The only problem is that she gets very upset if we happen to forget the sunglasses and leave the house without them. What a morning to forget them! We were already to River Vale Road when she realized we didn't have them and figured we'd be late if we went back to retrieve them. She was pretty upset and cried, but luckily, it stopped before we arrived at Ms. Lisa's. She went right in and started playing with the tea set. I was worried she might cry when we left, since she did this last year, but she didn't cry at all! John and I were so proud of her!!! After we left Ms. Lisa's, we took Avery with us to Lowe's because we needed to buy paint (we are going to move John's mother's bedroom from upstairs down to the office, so we need to paint it first and fix it up).

Here's Reagan after school with her craft (yep, it's painted RED, of course!). When I picked her up, Ms. Lisa told me a funny story that I have to share:

Ms. Lisa asked the students to tell her why they were each special, so she started with her daughter Nicole (since she's 4 1/2):

Ms. Lisa: Nicole, why are you special?

Nicole: I'm special because I'm a princess

Ms. Lisa: Elly, why are you special?

Elly: because I'm a princess

Ms. Lisa: Juliana, why are you special?

Juliana: because I'm a princess

Ms. Lisa: Reagan, why are you special?

Reagan: (in a strong, opinionated voice) I'm NOT special!

Ms. Lisa: Of course you're special!

Reagan: No, I'm NOT special!

Ms. Lisa: Okay, what are you then?

Reagan: (in a sweet voice) I'm a ballerina!

One thing's for sure, my little Reagan is independent and knows what she wants! I love that Ms. Lisa shares these little stories with me so I can write them down and remember them.

I know I posted these pictures back when I did a whole post about Ms. Lisa's Preschool Prep, but I thought it would be fun to do the comparison photos like my sister Camille did of Makenna on her blog.

First day of preschool, age 22 months old 9-25-07

First day of preschool - 2 years, 10 months old 9-19-08

It's amazing how much she's grown up in a year, right? And she's only had 1 haircut, which was only a short little trim.