We've been talking about school with Avery for a long time now. She hasn't been excited about it at all. Whenever we bring it up she says "not me!" Like, "I'm not going!" Her biggest concern was, of course, that she would be at school without us, and that made her uncomfortable. I realized that this was a whole new world for her, and she had no real understanding of what school meant, so I was hoping that once she got there and met her teachers and the other kids, and realized they were all very nice, that she would be ok with it all.
I took her shoppping for a new outfit yesterday, in an effort to get her excited about getting to wear some new clothes and going to school. I made sure to include tights in the new outfit, since she loves to wear tights. This seemed to work somewhat, and she was happy to get dressed this morning. When I told her I wanted to go out on the porch and take a picture of her with her new backpack, however, her mood shifted. She was starting to realize that we were going to be leaving soon and she wasn't happy about that.
She didn't want anything to do with her backpack, but did seem interested in taking her Tinkerbell lunchbox to school (which she doesn't need at all at school since they don't eat lunch there, but who cares!). So I said great, let's take a picture with your lunchbox, and she stood very somber on the front porch.
We were able to get a little smile to peek through though.
And were soon able to make her laugh.
Abe then pretended he was going to wear her backpack, and that motivated her to put it on herself.
And she finally gave me a pose with her backpack on. As we drove to school she asked me several times where we were going, and was getting more nervous the closer we got. Little tears were welling up in her eyes, and she said "not now, mommy." It broke my heart. I tried my best to ease her fears and explain all the fun things she was going to get to do.
When we arrived, she didn't want to get out of the car, but somehow gathered up the courage anyway and got out without a tantrum (thank goodness! I was preparing for a meltdown). I brought her to her classroom and started showing her around.
Her mood lightened when she saw all of the fun things in the classroom.
She was especially excited to see that they had stuffed animals. The girl loves stuffed animal dogs. She didn't let go of that black dog the whole time she was there! 
Then she found the puzzles on the desks and started playing with those. I stayed for about fifteen minutes and then the parents were supposed to go and hang out in the cafeteria for a little while until it was time to pick them up (the first day was only going to last an hour). I told Avery it was time for me to leave and that I would be back soon to pick her up. She had a little panicky moment and ran after me, grabbing on to my leg. Her teacher came over and explained that it was time for me to go, and to give one last big hug. She did, and then her tears started to flow. Her teacher had to pick her up (because she was trying to leave the room with me) and as I left she was crying and holding her hands out to me. So sad :( I knew that's exactly how it would be when I dropped her off, but it's hard to watch nonetheless. While we were sitting in the cafeteria, the school director came around to let us know that she had checked in to the room and all the kids were doing fine...no crying. So that made me feel much better.
When I went back to pick her up, she had a smile on her face and I could tell that she hadn't been crying in a while. Her teacher said she only cried for a little bit and then found a puzzle that she liked and was able to calm down.
Avery mentioned several times to me "you came back to pick me up!" as if she was surprised that I did. I think she was really worried that I wouldn't come back for her, poor thing.
On the way home she told me "that was fun at school," so I think overall it was a good experience for her and she enjoyed it once she gave it a chance. I hope that she continues to give it a chance and that we can quickly get to a point where we're tear free when I drop her off. We'll see! Friday is her first full day (which is really just a couple hours), so we'll see how that goes.
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