School Daze

Those of you that know me know that I like things like plans, schedules, calendars and lists. I don't enjoy surprises and 'spontaneous' is not something I completely understand. So, it's no shocker that I was the first in line on January 24 to sign Lilly up for preschool at The Ginger Bread House. I signed her up, paid the fees and marked my calendar for the first day of school and the parent meeting the night before. I even made a note of it on my mom's calendar because I knew she would need to babysit. Then, something prompted me to realize that I had made an error and I changed, on all three calendars (mine, my pocket calendar, and my mom's), the date for the parent meeting to Wednesday night, the night before school starts.

Wednesday Lilly and I picked out several new dresses, I ironed them, got Lilly a haircut and prepared her for school. Then, we met my parents for dinner. That way we could all eat, and the kids could go home with them and get their bathes on time while Bryan and I attending the parent meeting. A well thought out plan, right? This is where things started to fall apart. As we eagerly walked into The Ginger Bread House lobby for the meeting we were stunned to see that it was empty except for a table of four ladies. Teachers, I assumed. They weren't. But, they were kind enough to inform me that the parent meeting was the night before. I felt like the worst mother ever and I knew I had just blown any chance Lilly ever had to succeed in school.

I was determined to get the first day right and not be 'that mom'. Lilly got up at about 7:15 and she was as excited as could be for her first day of school. I made muffins the day before so her favorite breakfast would be all ready to go, with the addition of a scrambled egg, of course. I got dressed, dressed Lilly and Jack and offered Jack some Cheerios (that he ate for the first time...which was not in the schedule). I took a couple of pictures and went to load Jack in the car before taking a couple outside shots, complementing myself on being ahead of the schedule. That's the exact moment that I realized I had left his car seat in my mother's car the night before. Lilly was to be at school at 9am, it was a quarter till. In about a half a second a debated all of my options (which included calling Bryan out of a meeting, dragging Kristy and a newborn out in the rain and asking a stranger who happened to be jogging by to please watch Jack for ten minutes ), but instead I called my mom in a near panic. The conversation went something like this; Mom:"Hello?" Me:"You have Jack's car seat". Mom:"I'm on my way". Me:"Hurry hurry hurry!" Click Me:"Hello?" About four minutes and thirty seconds later my mom pulled in my driveway and I all but threw Jack at her as she tried to get out of her car.

No worries though, I got Lilly to school on time, just before the doors opened and found out that the parent meeting is optional and evidently a lot bigger deal to me than anyone else. Whew.

Lilly's first day of school breakfast and her lucky jammies. Picture with Daddy.

Brand new school dress.
"Mom, you're embarrassing me."

Coming out of class in a line with her new friends.

Showing off her bucket. At GBH the kids carry buckets to and from class instead of backpacks. I think most of the class time today was spent decorating the buckets.

Lilly was a little nervous going into the school for the first time, but seemed more at ease once we went into the classroom. Her teachers, Mrs.Numminen and Mrs.Snider are very friendly and Lilly was eager to check out all of the toys in the classroom. We said a quick good bye and she turned to play at the kitchen with another little girl without looking back. I took this as my cue to leave. Today was unique in that half the class met for and hour and 15 minutes and the other half met for the other hour and 15 minutes. On Tuesday all eleven kids will be there for the full time. So today, I just enough time to go home and get Jack and do some grocery shopping. I dropped off the groceries and went back for Lilly. I didn't expect how proud I would feel when I saw her walking out with her class, in a line, carrying her bucket. We waved to the teacher and climbed in the car. I was anxious to hear every detail of her first day of school, but Lilly disappointed me when I asked her to tell me about school by saying, "Maybe tomorrow." So, I tried a different route and I asked specific questions about what I knew they did. "No questions", she said. Seriously?!

I know she had a good day and Mrs. Snider filled me on a couple of details, but I guess we'll all have to wait until tomorrow to see what Lilly thought.