First day of real preschool.

Emily started preschool for real today. We did a parent run preschool with some friends last year which worked out well, but most of the kids went to kindergarten so we had to try something different. Emily is going to the same preschool as Taylor and Ashley did, so I thought she'd feel right at home since she's been there a lot. I was just a bit wrong. We went to the open house yesterday for her to get used to the classroom and to see where she'd put her backpack. She was a little shy, but seemed to have fun playing with the toys. Well, as we got ready to go this morning Emily decided she didn't want to go. She refused to put on her socks and shoes, she then refused to get in the car, and finally she refused to get out of the car. After peeling her out of the van and walking into the school with her screaming at the top of her lungs (Parker was crying too because I couldn't hold his hand while carrying Carter and pulling Emily along - great fun!) she still wouldn't go into the classroom to participate. I offered to stay a few minutes, only to discover that staying only made it worse. Finally, the teacher just took her from me while she was screaming so I could leave. Talk about feeling bad about leaving your kid at preschool. If I hadn't been through similar things with Taylor I would have been in tears. I did call 15 minutes later to see if she'd calmed down and she had. When I picked her up she was all smiles and had enjoyed the day. Hopefully the next time will be a little easier. (No picture available due to dead battery. I don't think it would have been pretty anyway.)