doing hard things

After a cheerful drop-off, Junie's tears started yesterday around snack time when it sunk in that I was really gone, and kept up for... awhile. When I picked her up after lunch she was really subdued, but she still said, when asked, that she had fun and thought she would have fun tomorrow, she had just been a little sad at snack.

This morning she seemed eager to go ("c'mon Mama let's go to school") but when I said it was time for me to leave her face crumpled and, oh, there were tears. We snuggled for a little bit while I told her encouraging things and she stuck her hands up my sleeves and tried to hold on to me, and then I told her I was going to do a hard thing and stand up and go now, and did. The teacher took her to the window to wave goodbye and I blew her kisses from the sidewalk and walked away even though I could hear her still crying.

She was quiet and subdued again at pickup and there were a couple of rounds of tears tonight when the subject of preschool came up, or when she just happened to think of it.

( cut for length; details about her sadness and my struggling with it )

the lighter side

The best part of preschool is trying to figure out what the heck they do there all day. For instance, today they may have read a book, entitled Book Book, starring a mouse, an elephant, and an alligator, all named Boogowoogo. If you believe our child. It's like trying to interview a very giggly stoned alien: she has no idea what aspects of our strange Earth customs are interesting, no separation of real and pretend, and no inclination towards accurate reporting. What we get is awesome and hilarious. (I assume this becomes less fun when we actually need to figure out which day is the field trip or did she hand in the check or whatever.)