Back to School

It's been such a busy week with all of the fall/back to school activities! Madelyn had her first week of preschool at her new school, and even though she's been before I still had a hard time thinking about my little baby going off to do her own thing. It's still such a strange thing to get used to - even if only for 3 hours.

She did great on the first day, though she was a bit shy. By the end of the second day, her teacher told me she was "emerging as the group leader" and very chatty with all the other kids, often saying "Let's do this, guys!" or "Come on over here and play, guys!" (At our house, we often remind Maddie not to be a "bossy Gillis," which is a term her Grampy uses a lot. She's got no shortage of self confidence and has no problem herding other kids to go along with her idea of fun. The challenge for us will probably be to make sure that her "leadership" is constructive at preschool, and doesn't turn into something else...)

In other Maddie news this week...she started dance lessons! Very exciting for her, as she absolutely loves to dance and just perform in general. She's doing a one hour combo class of ballet, tap and tumble. I quickly realized though that I may be one of the only moms there that isn't really "into" it as a serious effort, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine with her doing dance if that's what she's into. But at age 3.5, we're pretty much just letting her try different things and see what she likes. Last year it was gymnastics, this year it's dance, and I think next year will be soccer once she's finally old enough to take soccer lessons like Dora! But all of the other parents there had clearly been coming for a while, and had multiple kids in dance.


And speaking of doing things on her own...the dance instructors won't let parents anywhere near the dance studio, because parents are distracting. I asked (sort of jokingly...maybe with a hint of sarcasm??) if I would ever get a chance to see her and what she was learning, and the instructor told me yes... at the recital in June. I know Maddie is pretty self sufficient and doesn't "need" me for things like this right now, but it just put me so on edge to have her down on another floor, with a teacher she'd never met before, doing something she'd never done formally before...with no parent there by her side, even for the first class. She was a trooper and didn't mind a bit -- it was me who was kind of a mess. I guess we'll just keep trying it as long as Maddie is happy doing it, though. I'm sure I'll get used to it too!