I wasn't going to do it, but I did.

Cry, that is. Today was the girls' last day of preschool (last week they had their little graduation ceremony). When I arrived to pick them up, I was fine. But then one of the teachers started telling me, all choked up and with tears in her eyes, how much she was going to miss Daisy and Annabelle, and what terrific girls they were, and of course my own waterworks started then.

They've really come a long way this year. Daisy overcame a couple of her phobias and made great strides in speech therapy (when she started, she had trouble with several sounds, making her speech generally difficult to understand; now the only hurdle she has left to overcome is the "R" sound). Both girls know their alphabet and recognize all the sounds - and both of them are trying to sound out words. Daisy can write the name of every member of our family. They can both count to 40. On their final evaluations, the teacher wrote that she expects that they will both do well in kindergarten later this year (phew! we were really torn about sending them vs. waiting another year). On both girls evaluations, she checked the box "cooperates and follows directions," which is especially noteworthy for Annabelle. I'm telling you, that girl is a little hellion! But apparently at school, she is a different child entirely, for which I am everlastingly grateful.

So there were tears and hugs all around today. These passages always break my heart a little.