Liv is a generous young girl. Last week I wanted to use one of her pink barrettes in my hair. I asked her if I could borrow her barrette and her first response was "No" while she took it out of my hand and hugged it to her chest. I promised to bring it back at the end of the day, but she wasn't convinced. I said okay and went into the kitchen to prepare my lunch. About five minutes later she came out of her room with the barrette and held it out to me. She said "Here Mommy. Bring it back?" I said thank you and promised again that I would bring it back to her. I knelt down and put the barrette in my hair and showed it to her. She got a big smile on her face and said "So pretty Mommy!"

The first day of preschool was a big, BIG success! I took her to school on my way to work and we arrived at school early. So we played on the play ground and then looked at the anemones and clown fish ("Nemo") in the fish tank. When the teachers let us in the classroom we washed our hands and then she was off to play with the toys, crayons and paper. I headed to the door and she started to run in my direction. The teacher, assuming Liv was running to me, said "One more kiss for Mommy?" But no, Liv ran right by me to the bulletin board with her and her class mates pictures so she could move her picture from "out" to "in". Liv was so excited to be there that she didn't even notice when I left the building. It was the best I could have hoped for.

Before this people would ask me how I was going to cope with leaving her at preschool. It was a perfectly appropriate question but one that I had not considered before. I've been leaving Liv with her dad every work day since Liv was about 3 months old. So I did all of my crying and worrying a long time ago. Leaving her at preschool was a transition that we were all looking forward to. It's been obvious for several months now that Liv has not been stimulated enough at home and we have been hoping that 2 half days at school would remedy that problem. I think it has and we are all much happier.

Now I should say that a certain someone in Liv's life had a difficult time that day but it wasn't me. This person (whom I won't mention his name, wink, wink) confided in me that he felt unusually stressed all morning and realized it was because Liv wasn't there for him like she usually is. I think someone missed her very much!

School is starting just in time for my little Liv who has started showing an interest in "going to work with mommy". It all started last Monday when Liv went to work with my mom while Daddy and I went to have a sonogram of the new baby. She had a blast visiting new people and raiding office supplies. So now every day as I'm about to walk out the door she rushes around the house in her diaper or pajamas gathering her "work" and yelling "I coming mommy. Wait, I coming to work with you." It breaks my heart to leave her because I would love to bring her with me and let her play all day. Lately we've been telling her that she is going to work with Daddy (which means running photography errands with him) and distracting her with books. This morning she had a purse, sunglasses and diaper on and was ready to walk out the door with me.
This makes me even more excited about Liv starting preschool. Next Thursday I'll be able to say "Okay Liv, you are going to work today at your own school and you are riding with me!" I can't wait to see her eyes get big and bright as she runs and screams around the house about going to work.
And the sonogram showed that we have a healthy and very, very active little girl to look forward to this winter. We could not be more excited and happy. She will make the perfect holiday package.

Proud moment for dad
Olivia starts preschool next week and so we've spent the past few week-ends engaging in the ritual "back to school" events...shopping for shoes, clothes, backpack, lunch box and school supplies. Today we went with Liv to her school to meet her teachers and fill out paperwork. It took her a while to feel comfortable enough to enter the classroom but once she did she didn't want to leave. She liked her teachers and as soon as we got out of the building she said "come back to school".
After meeting the teachers we decided to take her to our local hip toy shop to pick out her own lunch box. I'd scoped out the lunch boxes a few days ago and knew they had a selection that would please her. We walked in the door and there they were..the old-fashioned tin lunch boxes with Smurfs, cowboys and horses, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Hello Kitty, sock monkeys, dogs, you name it. And the first box she picked up was Spiderman! We led her to all the aisles that had lunch boxes so she could make an informed decision. At one point she had 5 of them on the floor. We asked her which one was her favorite and she picked Spiderman again. Her Daddy was so proud! And I couldn't have planned the next thing that happened any better. As I wandered off to look at art supplies a man approached her Daddy and said "Did she pick that out all by herself?" and her Daddy said yes, to which the man replied "Wow, she's going to be the coolest kid ever!". Daddy smiled all the way home.