Megan's Last Day of Preschool

First day of preschool, September 9, 2008

Last day of preschool, today (May 19, 2009)

Look how my girl has grown! Boo hoo! Today was the last day of preschool for Megan. It's hard to believe an entire school year has gone by. I still remember standing in our front yard taking this picture, as if I had just done it last month. I was probably more nervous about Megan's first day than she was. She looked forward to it with the unbridled optimism of a three-year-old who had no knowledge or experience of being teased, being self-conscious, trying to fit in. All she knew was that she was going to meet new kids and have fun learning new things, and that was enough for her. (If only us adults could enter into new and unfamiliar experiences with such gusto and pure postive feelings!) The whole school year went that way for Megan. Never once did she complain about going to school or say that she didn't want to go. The few times she had to miss (once because she was sick, two because we were on vacation), she was very sad about it.

And wow, she has come so far! Just within the last few months, she's really learned to write her name well. (She still turns the "G" upside down, but we're working on it!) She can draw a really good person now, with a face, arms, legs, and hair (at the beginning of the school year, when asked to draw a person she would make scribbles). She does a great job coloring in the lines of a coloring book page. She's become so bold at the playground, climbing things she wouldn't have dared to try last summer! Within the last month she's started riding a "big girl bike," and is so much better at pedaling her tricycle around than she was last summer. I attribute a lot of this accelerated development to her experiences at preschool. And the amount of stuff she has learned about at preschool has been amazing! She comes home and teaches me things I didn't know!

We're looking forward to a fun-filled summer (the first one I've had with two kids neither of whom are napping in the morning!). I promised Megan that we'd do "something fun every day." And I'm sure she'll hold me to that. She's already asking what we're doing tomorrow, and Thursday....

Now, lest you think, "Wow, that Megan....what a mature, evolved little lady!"; and just in case I've gotten too mired in Megan's wonderful leaps and bounds that she's made this year, let me leave you with this picture.....

....also taken this morning, before preschool. Hilarious!!! I think she was crying partly because she was sad about it being the last day, and partly because, well...she just didn't want to get her picture taken anymore, because she was afraid it would make us late for school. This is the result of me saying, "Come on, Megan, smile!" To which she responded, "I AAAAMMM smiling!!!!" while making this face and crying. Gotta love it.