Ella is a Full Day Kindergartener

I feel sad, excited, anxious, and protective about the whole "send your 4 year old to full day Kindergarten" thing. Ella has been so excited and ready for school to start. It's bitter-sweet for me. Even though Ella can drive me crazy sometimes, she is so awesome! I love her a ton. She is so fun and funny and creative. She loves to learn and to teach her sisters things. She's a really great organizer, and I catch her at the right time, she will clean and organize the entire playroom! But free child labor isn't why I feel sad--it's just hard to let go of her for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, not knowing exactly what she's being exposed to. Faith. That's what it's all about from here. The Lord will help me know if something isn't right. The bus ride is too long, so I'm planning to drive her both ways. HOPEFULLY carpooling will work out sometime this year so I only have to drive one way, but I feel adamant about her not having to ride the bus for such a long period of time. I don't want to give up an entire 1.5 hours more with her! Aunt Becky took Ella shopping for some school clothes last weekend and Ella KNEW what she was going to wear for the First Day of School the second she walked in our front door! It was laid out in her room for 72 hours!

And here is my little 16 month old baby girl. She has the cutest smile. She talks all the time and even says 15 or so words we can understand ;) She puts food in her mouth of all sorts, but doesn't swallow a darn thing. The special Neocate formula is keeping her happy and gaining weight.