Natalie's First Day of School--sort of

So I am a terrible mother! Natalie had her first day of school on August 28th and I took my camera to take pictures but the battery was dead so these pictures are from today even though it wasn't the first day of school. It was actually the fourth. Oh well, I do the best I can, most of the time, and I didn't remember until today to take my camera again. She'll never know the difference and in 5 years she probably won't remember that these pictures weren't taken on her very very very first day of pre-school.

So, on to how the first day went. I think she was excited, and nervous and she did have a great day but there are only 2 other little girls in her class, which kind of bugs. They usually try to even out the classes so I might say something to the director and be like "hey what's up with this?" If anyone needs girlfriends its Natalie...especially right now since she's totally having "I have no friends" complex. She does have friends, but they all, and I mean ALL started kindergarten. The other hard thing for her is that Jackson is constantly going over to play at friend's houses and she's never invited over anywhere so she perceives that as nobody likes me! Its sad really, and it makes me feel really bad for her. I think she's lonely and bored so hopefully one or both of the little girls in her pre-school class can be her friends.

Now, the other day something happened to make her feel even worse about her friend situation. She had a little girl, we'll call her 'Pam'* from up the street over and they'd been playing for about an hour when the doorbell rang. Well it was the little girl who lives next to 'Pam' (we'll call her 'Jane') Anyways, I said to 'Jane', "Hi Jane, the girls are up in Natalie's room. You're welcome to go on up." So 'Jane' ran upstairs to join them and not 2 minutes later 'Pam' and 'Jane' came running downstairs without Natalie. I asked where they were going and they told me they were going to 'Jane's' house and out they ran. Well, I go over to the stairs and here comes Natalie with tears streaming down her face because she had just totally been ditched. It broke my heart to see her so upset and so we had a good snuggle but after that she really felt like nobody liked her. I ended up calling 'Pam's' mom because a week earlier she had been telling me about 2 girls who live next door to me who had come to her house looking for 'Jane'. That day 'Jane' and the girls who live next to me ended up ditching 'Pam' so I wanted her to know that 'Pam' had ditched Natalie. She was very apologetic and she had 'Pam' come over and apologize to Natalie and she even had a talk with 'Jane's' mom and the mother of the girls next door. Hopefully there will be no more ditching!

Anyways, that's the deal with Natalie these days. Even though she thinks she has no friends I know that people love her. How can you not? She's funny, fun, friendly, kind, cute, sweet, giving and loving...among other things. I love her to bits and pieces and hope things start shaping up for her socially in the next few weeks. Just so you know, I'm trying my best to help out by inviting little girls over to play with her and she starts a jazz class with her friend Brooke on Tuesday so she'll have that to look forward to also.

*-names have been changed to protect privacy :)

The outside of her school

Beautiful girl posing for the camera in her classroom

This is her with her hat she made standing by her cubby (number 2)