Her First Day and I Didn’t Cry (although I might have felt like it once or twice)

Last night we set up Maddy’s brand new alarm clock. What use does a four year old have for an alarm clock? Several actually. We’ve been working with Maddy for a while on a morning routine. You see my child with her stay-at-home-mom has had a pretty easy morning routine for most of her life. Okay, pretty much all of her life. Get up eat breakfast, eventually get dressed and then get on with the day. That routine while a comfy one for both of us was lacking in several areas.

1.) It is easier to get a four year old to do something if it is expected, always. Things like getting dressed and making a bed should not be a fight every morning.
2.) Four-year-old children should have responsibilities. It’s set expectations for simple responsibilities, such as turn off night light, with a loosey-goosey routine.
3.) Luke planned to take Maddy to school every morning on his way to work. Without some morning structure it is hellish to get out of the house in a reasonable amount of time.

and really the list could go on. So routine has been established, tweaked, tweaked again and changed up a bit until we found something that works for us. With the actual addition of school we knew we needed something to get Maddy us and going in the morning without us having to do the actually waking her up part. That would make for a grumpy kid. What wouldn’t make for a grumpy kid would be waking up to happy music. This morning, her first morning with an alarm clock set to play some of her favorite tunes, Maddy was up and ready to go in record time. No fights, no orders, no having to watch over her every move. She remembered every responsibility on her little list. She was ready to go before Luke was and all in all everyone set off to Maddy’s first day of school in happy moods.

When I stop and think about it I can’t believe my sweet little baby is old enough for school, a packed lunch, picking her own outfits or an alarm clock. But boy oh boy is she ready. So ready she didn’t want to leave school today when I went to pick her up after lunch time.

On a side note those of you who know Madeline will smile to know she paired a very girly fluffy pink skirt, fuzzy pink jacket and black leggings with bows with a very green t-shirt with a big menacing T-Rex plastered across the front. That’s my girl. She is who she is and I like it.