Ilana's first day of school.

We got up at 6:15am. I woke Ilana up and she did really good waking up cuz she was so excited to go to school. (Side bar: One morning a couple months ago, I tried to wake her up. She wouldn't hardly move she was so deeply asleep. I was talking to her and telling her we were going to go do something etc. She jumps out of bed and said, "Oh, I was pretending to be asleep cuz I thought we were going to church." The little sneak! Okay, back to her first day of school.) We got her ready and walked down to the bus stop. Mom tried really hard not to cry as her sweet little baby got on this huge tourist type bus to go to school for the first time. She loved every minute of it and had a great day.

The next morning I went into her room to wake her up and the first words out of her mouth were, "school" and "bus"! Her eyes weren't even open yet! She loves school and had a great 1st week. The second day she got off the bus, she was singing a song in Spanish. This kid has Spanish class twice a week and also has a class taught by the host nation (about Germany) so she is learning German too!

Today is Friday and my alarm went off at 6:22am. Somehow I didn't hear it yet managed to also turn it off (this is early morning seminary all over again!). At 6:31am Ilana comes into my room and says, "Come on mom, we have to get ready for school!" How sad is that when your 5 year old has to wake you up and she didn't have an alarm clock. This kid really likes school!

She has had a little bit of a sore throat. I think it is the changing weather. I gave her some cough medicine this morning and said, "Do you think we should stay home today because your throat is hurting?" She gave me a really alarmed look, like that never crossed her mind and said, "Well,.. I don't want to miss school!" This kid really really likes school!

She has a fabulous teacher and everyone tells me how sweet Ilana is. Yesterday I donated some dixie cups to her classroom. I knew they needed them and it was a great excuse to stop in to see Ilana in her class. When I walked in the kids were on the floor listening to the "If you give a mouse a cookie" story. Ilana was sitting up front and didn't see me. I chatted with the teachers aid (a friend from church, how cool is that) and got to watch her. After the story she jumped up and pointed to a picture of a mouse on the bulletin board. It was the same mouse from the story book. The teacher said, "Look what Ilana has noticed." She spoke up a couple times so I know she is comfortable but not getting in trouble for it. Then all the kids got in a circle and they put on a musical song that called out a color and if you were wearing it you had to stand up and clap your hands or turn around etc. She was now facing me and I could see the moment she realized I was there. Her face lit up with a big smile and then she went right back to what she was doing. On my way out I leaned down and kissed her head and told her I would see her later. She half turned to me with a distracted smile and gave me a look like she wanted to say "bye" but I was interrupting something very important and she just couldn't give me her attention;) She really really really likes school. On the pictures of her first day. You can just see her face above the #21 on the bus.