This post is over a month late, shame on me.  The photos have been sitting on my desktop collecting dust.  Actually, I was waiting to find some photos I had taken of Poppy’s last day at the daycare she had been going to.  I was going to do a nice transition from one stage in her life to the next.  But when there are roughly six SD cards floating around and you can’t remember which one was in the camera at the time, you kinda wonder whether it’s worth waiting for.  Yes, it darn well is waiting for.  But alas, I have yet to come across them.  Shall I paint the scene, because I took a mental photo that day.

I arrived at the daycare, it was 11.30.  Normally the workers and children are all playing and waiting for parents to arrive outside in the playground.  But this day was different, it was raining.  So I walk in, massive fat camera in hands (times like this I wish I had a point and shot), and I realise she is playing under a table in the center of the room with two little French kids.  They are giggling and wiggling and don’t even notice I enter the room.  I say “Bonjour” to the workers and they start talking to Poppy, informing her that I’m here.  I tell the ladies that it’s Poppy’s last day and ask if it would be ok to take a couple of photos.  “Bien sur!!” (of course!) they reply.  So Poppy scrambles from under the table and does this cute little pose where she sticks out her bottom to one side, sticks her tongue out and does a cheeky little ‘jazz hands-esque’ type of stance.  She is wearing her new top that Memaw had recently sent over.  It’s purple with a Yorkie dog in black and white, wearing big chunky head-phones, and jeans bien sur!  I think I took another one, not so cheeky.

I will find those photos one day.

So back to Poppy’s first day at French pre-school. It is a quaint little school two minutes exactly from where we live.  We know that for a fact because we have to run there often 😉  The front door opens at 8.20 and closes with no exceptions at 8.30.  In the mornings she goes until 11.30 when we pick her up for a two hour lunch break.  She returns at 1.20 for her daily nap, which lasts until 3.00.  And the day finally finishes at 4.30.  She has Wednesday’s off like all French students.

Poppy for the most part is perfectly happy to go to school.  I think she is just very used to going somewhere after her time at daycare in Dallas and her time at daycare in France.  Sometimes she fusses at lunchtime and says she doesn’t want to go back, but as soon as I say “ok go and lay down and have your nap here” she starts putting her shoes on!!  The funny thing is, once we are on the way she never drags her feet or fusses about going.  And she never has a hard time saying goodbye to me once we are in the classroom.  Every time I pick her up she runs to her bag to give me a coloring she has done for me, so I know she enjoys herself.

And, oh, has her French come along!  It’s hard to describe.  She obviously still talks mainly English, without a doubt.  But when she is playing in her room she talks French.  Sometimes for fun we will talk French together.  Just really simple sentences obviously.  It’s so adorable hearing her little French accent and the way the words flow so smoothly from her mouth.  The other day Drew asked the teacher if everything was going well with Poppy.  The teacher said Poppy had taught her a new word.  She continued to try and say it in English.  Drew had a hard time at first and then suddenly “oh pumpkin!” Poppy had been teaching her teacher how to say pumpkin, lol.  Of all words!  I asked Poppy why pumpkin and she said they were reading a story about one.  Bien sur!

I truly believe Poppy has grown up alot since attending pre-school.  She is MUCH better at sitting and listening.  She throws less tantrums these days and just has this more mature air about her.  Drew and I have really noticed this.

My last story about Poppy at school concerns a hamster, a plastic hamster that came in a McDonald’s Happy Meal.  Poppy has been attached to this grey, chubby cheeked rodent since it arrived with a cheeseburger and fries.  She would take it to bed and even take it to school.  The first time she did this, Drew had to tell her the hamster was going to take a nap in her school bag, so she would put it away.  The second time she took it I think we had forgotten her bag or something, so I put it in her coat pocket and told her to leave it there until I came to pick her up.  Well of course when I arrived to get her, she runs up to me crying, saying she didn’t have her hamster any more.  I poked my head in the classroom and in French (bien sur!) inform the teacher that my daughter has lost a little toy animal and has anyone seen it?!?  lol.  Thankfully the little pest was sitting on the teacher’s desk safe and sound.  The teacher continued to tell Poppy she must leave it in the cloak room next time.  Poppy is getting a thing for pets I think, see video down below.

So finally, here are the photos from her first day at school.