Things are improving every day on the school front. Thank you for all your suggestions and thoughts. It’s amazing the things that help!

These days, Hayley is doing better. She doesn’t like to go to school when it’s the morning. She offers up excuses such as her stomach hurts (which I actually believe, my stomach hurts if I’m nervous too, exams that I was unprepared for were a blast with that) or that she has a broken toenail and thus can not go to school. This morning she tried to convince me that she had been awake all night long, which was a good effort but totally false. Other times she tries to bargain with things like, “I’ll stay home today but I promise I’ll go tomorrow” which is followed by, “fine, I’ll go today but on Friday I want to stay home to watch [insert TV show of your choice here].”

Naturally, I smile and tell her that I’m sorry about her toe/she can watch that show another time/nice try, and then explain that she is indeed going to school, and could you please finish your cereal?

On the way out the door, you’d think she was heading off to war, what with the glum face and all. She’s been really sad when she goes into the school, but today was a particularly good day in that she only sounded morose instead of distressed when she said goodbye. (It’s especially funny when she mumbles her sad goodbye and Breanna, Miss Oblivious, smiles broadly and waves while shouting a cheerful, “Bye! Bye ‘Aylay!”)

And yet, despite her reluctance each day, she is full of smiles when she comes out at the end of the day. She skips and hops and waves and then my ears could just about fall off from all the excitement she shouts at me about her day. Every day she has something new that she learned, whether it’s a song, a game, or a random fact. Every day she has at least one new name of someone that she played with. She’s happy when the day is over – not because it’s *finally* over, but happy because she’s had a good time.

It’s almost hard not to laugh at her in the morning (though, of course I don’t mock her, I’m trying to encourage her) as she tries to stall, and it’s funnier still to ask her in the evening if she’s excited about going to school in the morning and she sighs, “I guess.”

All I care about is that she’s gotten past the hump of adjusting to school as a whole and now she just needs to get past the mornings. I don’t care if she never does a backflip of joy over having to go to school, as long as she keeps enjoying it when she’s there, I’ll consider it a success.

I must confess though, my favorite time of day is when she comes home and the three of us go to the park and I can watch two sisters running excitedly all over the place together, happy to play together after a day apart.