Open house!

I went to Open House at Angelica's daycare last night. It was fantastic!

Right after her birthday, we switched daycares to move her to one that was closer to my work, and in with a friend of hers, since my niece and nephew were no longer attending the daycare she'd been going to. She's only been there for a couple of months, so it was really great tonight to be able to go in and meet the teacher, and have Angelica show me her classroom and introduce me to her friends!

Angelica is always talking about the "dollhouse center", because that's apparently her favorite thing about school. So, she showed me the dollhouse center and told me all about how it works. And then we got to play in dollhouse center together! It was so great to share in something that brings her so much joy every day, but that I don't normally get to experience.

She also showed me housekeeping center, and showed me how they do arts and crafts time (and how well she cleans up after herself at all of the centers!)

The whole time we were there, Angelica kept asking, "Can you stay, Mommy? Please, can you stay with me?" and of course I could say YES! I could tell from how excited she was for me to be there and stay with her that she loved being able to show me this part of her world.

I also got to really talk to her teacher about how she's doing in "school", and I'm really pleased to hear that: 1) She's super polite, 2) she plays really well with her friends, 3) she (mostly) listens when she's asked to do something and 4) she doesn't give the teacher any back-talk. Seriously, with the way she has been acting at home lately, I was pretty sure she was going deaf and in need of anger management courses. She's apparently the complete opposite and a total joy to have in the class.

The whole evening was a great opportunity to bond with each other, and it was reflected well in the way the rest of the evening went. Other than when Angelica spilled some ice water in her lap, which made her very upset and cranky for a short period of time, she was really well behaved the rest of the night. Even bedtime was a breeze. She got herself dressed (including buttoning her own pajama shirt -- I didn't even know she could do that!) and when we were done reading, she put her own books away.

I really need to find a way to take more time out of the busy hustle and bustle of the day to spend time letting her lead the way.  This night was full of joy.