Kate's First Day of School

Just to prove to you all that I haven't dropped off of the face of the earth, I thought I would share about Kate's first day of school. As you know, she had been eagerly waiting for September to get here so that she could be a big kid too. So last Wednesday the day finally arrived.

She picked out her own clothes, with matching orange socks and orange bow.

And she and her Daddy headed out on their annual First Day of School Breakfast, where she happily feasted on pancakes and chocolate milk.

When I picked her up, it was obvious that she had had a great morning and was really happy to see her friends and teachers again. She was grinning ear to ear and ran to meet me.

But when I got her in the van and asked her how it went, she put on her pouty face and said, "I didn't get any homework!" Yes, my daughter loves homework. She asks me every night when she will have homework, and doesn't understand why the teacher only assigns it (usually a story book to read together) on Mondays. My mom says I have to remind her of this in about 5 or 6 years.

A few days later I got a call from the special ed coordinator at her school. She didn't personally know Kate, but she was making rounds with Miss Julie, the speech and language pathologist who does know Kate. She said that Miss Julie's reaction to Kate's progress this summer was, "Wow!" You better believe wow! Learning to raise her tongue has only improved her ability to make sounds and words, and we are very excited about her progress.

And another plus of preschool, Kate is finding new ways to practice her sounds. Apparently one of Kate's new classmates is named Vanessa. So she spent most of Wednesday afternoon singing, "Banessa Banessa Banessa Banessa..." You get the idea. I asked her if she liked that name, and she giggled and said she did. Then she went back to her song. And the best part is that occasionally you can hear the V sound on the front of Banessa. Because of her under bite, that's a tough one!

Ahh, I love back-to-school time.