Growing up is hard to do!

and possibly even harder for Mom to do!!

One week from today Caroline will start school!!  Okay, well its not really school, but it is definitely pre-school and definitely more structure and time than she has ever known!  Caroline will start Mother's Day Out at a church down the street.  She will go Tuesdays and Thursdays every week from 9am-2pm.  They will do arts and crafts, read stories, play, eat lunch and take naps all while they are there!  I was pretty hesitant in signing her up for this, but it seems like just about everyone around here sends their kids somewhere.  Spaces are pretty limited and you have to sign up in February.  So knowing Cooper was on the way, I figured I better do it and would probably need it!  Well, the time is actually here!!  Caroline has changed so much since I signed her up and I really think she is going to do SO well!  She is talking so much, loves playing with other kids, is such a polite little girl with her "please" and "thank you's" and loves talking about going to school!  She received a book for her birthday from a friend called "Llama Llama misses Mama".  It's about a little boy who goes to school and the whole time misses his mama.  Then he starts having fun!  Then Mama COMES BACK!!  The little boy realizes he loves his mama... and SCHOOL TOO!!  She loves reading this and keeps telling me how when she comes to school, I'm going to come back for her.

I got an email from our church last week saying that promotion Sunday was on the 28th and Caroline would now be moved up to the Green A class from the Romper's class.  She had only been in romper's for a little over a month and now it was already time for her to move up to the structured class with story time and crafts and such.  I was a little nervous with all of these new things coming up and just feeling like I was losing my "baby".  Her birthday is so late and she just turned 2 so she is going to be one of the younger kids in her classes. I guess I can't hold on to her forever and have to start thinking of her as a big girl.  Well, we dropped her off and she was a little hesitant at first, but once we went to pick her up, she looked at us, smiled and kept on playing!  She was not ready to leave!!  Of course this made us a little sad, but also made us SO proud!  She sure is a BIG girl!  {And she'll tell you that too!  :)}  She also was able to show us the puppet she made and tell us all about Jonah and the whale.  She was so into the story and told us how Jonah said "NO" to God so he was swallowed by a big fish!  Then he prayed and started to obey God.  I can't tell you how much she enjoyed the class!!  This put me at ease a little more and I know that she is so ready for school and more social interaction.  I just hope that I'm ready too!!