All Things Girly and a Preschool Preview

This post should have been up on Friday but atlas I was swamped with work so here it goes:

With Joe out of town and Jake at school most of the day, Jadyn and I have had a lot of alone time this week. We have been productive - I have been walking at the park in the mornings after dropping Jake off, we went grocery shopping, ran errands and did some housework. But I also had a special treat for Jadyn who has had to endure so much fuss over Jake starting kindergarten.

Recently over the last several months Jadyn has really stepped up the girly play. She has magnetic dolls that she likes to dress and is obsessed with the Disney princesses. She received this super cute Cinderella set for her birthday that came with little rubber dresses so you can change the princess into various outfits and although she still needs help doing it, she loves to dress and undress the little figurine. This is on top of her taking her dress-up chest and making herself a princess on pretty much a daily basis. The time had come.

You see when I was little (although probably not as young as Jadyn) I was VERY into Barbie dolls. When I got older and it was time to put the Barbie dolls away, I decided to save them for when and if I ever had a daughter, an idea I had gotten from my best friend Lisa's mom. I thought it was the coolest thing to play with her moms' barbies, clothes and accessories she had saved from growing up in the 60's. What makes it even more special is that my Grandma March used to crochet custom dresses for my barbies and I kept every single one of those dresses. And on Monday, those barbies with their dresses and all the cute little accessories I had accumulated over my childhood came out of storage for Jadyn and I to play with. She was in awe and I had a great time reminiscing over all the treasured items, right down to the metal Band-Aid box that my mom had covered with wrapping paper so that my barbies could have a hamper. Oh the memories!

Here is Jadyn exploring the barbies when I first showed them to her:

Posing with a barbie wearing one of my Grandma's custom designs:

All the little accessories I collected over the years - Barbie sized tea set and books amongst my favorite:

Then on Thursday, Jadyn had her preschool open-house hours so she could go and visit the preschool and get to know the teachers (of which she is already familiar since it is the same preschool Jake attended for 2 years). She asked on several occasions if I was going to leave her there and I explained to her that while I was not leaving her this time, when she started school the following week I would be. Therefore she was not nervous at all and happily played with the toys while I chatted with her teachers. However, when the teachers tried to talk to her she clammed up. I really wonder how long it will take her to warm up to them when I am not there. At any rate, after leaving we talked in the car on the way home and she told me point blank that she would talk to her teachers and fellow classmates when she started school on Tuesday and had her backpack. Apparently, the backpack is the magic ingredient so I guess we shall soon see how she does.

Before leaving for the open-house:

Shutting down when the teachers tried to talk to her (LOL!):

Playing peek-a-boo with the puppet booth smiling and happy once again:

I know how ready she is for preschool and I know I have talked about it for awhile now but even though she is much more verbal than Jake at this age there is something about her being my second and last child that makes me think she cannot not possibly already be at this stage of going to preschool. If I stop and think about it for too long, it literally blows my mind. Where has the last 3 years gone?

My little baby girl isn't quite so little anymore.