Julia and Sebastian go to Preschool ...

Well now that I promised a post about it I'm sitting here staring at the wall and wondering what I should report that anyone would find even remotely interesting? Probably nothing. But that's not my reserved style.

I'll share it all.

We had toyed with the idea of putting Julia in preschool this spring for a multitude of reasons but procrastination is one of my strongest suites and I hadn't done a thing to propel the process forward so I thought maybe we'd just figure it out in the fall. Then Simon overheard a couple of nurses talking about how much they loved their kids' preschool one night when he was on call in December and happened to catch the name of the school and wait - wasn't that the school at the end of our street? Why yes, it was. So he asked and the kind nurses answered (high praise, we wouldn't have to sell our fourth born to afford it, and more high praise) and all of a sudden Simon had set up a tour and we genuinely loved the teachers and the setup and bada bing they were enrolled (Julia two mornings a week and Sebastian one) and wow this wasn't the crazy process I assumed it would be and bada boom ... there we were on the first day.

Would I have been as on board as I was (and am!) if Simon worked less insane hours and I was involved in some sort of playgroup or mom's group or ANY socialization situation at all? I don't know. Probably. Most likely, yes.

I think I sort of half expected the stereotypical knee clinging/sobbing/dramatic goodbye from at LEAST Julia on the first day but no. Sebastian couldn't even be bothered to turn his head to nod a goodbye in my direction but at least Julia tolerated an awkward one-armed hug from me. The next time I dropped her off she permitted a polite handshake. I pretended not to be mildly offended but ... come on, Coolia. Yesterday they made it as far as the parking lot before their teacher offered to walk them in and they thought that was just great and so next time I think I'll just stay in bed and see how they fare because clearly they are ready for their first cubicles in the workforce.

A few highlights ...

... Sebastian has gone from talking in two word grunts ("no, Theo!!!") to talking in incomplete sentences ("no, Theo!! too dangerous!!") and should I give all the credit to the school? Of course not but it's a funny coincidence. At least once a day Simon or I say to the other, "he's actually kind of talking ... it's crazy" because he was content to live in the shadow of Julia's prattle for so long and we'd just gotten used to life with our strong and silent.

... The first day we dropped the kids off was Simon's first day on nights and so he came with me and afterwards we found ourselves with Theo in the Costco parking lot 20 minutes before the warehouse even opened. To kill time we popped down to Best Buy to buy a replacement battery for the minivan key remote. I hate to say I can feel the life jealousy you're experiencing at this very moment permeating through the screen but .... back off.
 
... We drive by the school almost every time we leave the house and after the first week as we were driving by Julia chanted out loud to herself, "the rules are ... no crying, no fighting, and NO pooping in your pants!!" and I'm as good as sold. Preschool forever and ever.

Stuck on You generously sent the budding scholars personalized backpacks and lunch boxes ...

 

And the day they arrived was years better than Christmas because we all know how Julia feels about anything that can further enable her hoarding habit. When packing her lunch yesterday morning we found her lunchbox stuffed full of all of Sebastian's trucks and her dirty socks filled with her chapstick collection. Sebastian thinks he now has a purse like Julia and Julia loves any excuse to talk about how to spell her name, "J" .... we know we are doing a phenomenal job at home.

Sebastian loves to point out his name and when I ask him what it spells he thinks long and hard and eventually settles on, "me" .... again with the phenom.

They obviously have a little growing to do as far as the backpacks are concerned but they are such great quality and my hope is that the style is timeless enough to last their elementary school years. And that Sebastian doesn't get fed up with trying to spelling his name and request a legal name change at the tender age of 5.

Stuck on You has an amazing inventory of personalized items for kids but I think my favorite favorite would have to be the name puzzles. If I had had one of those as a kid I wouldn't be here with you today because I would've died. Cause of death? Extreme happiness.

Stuck on You is giving away three $20 credits and I'm going to hope really hard that YOU are one of the lucky winners ...

Good luck, thank you for reading AND most especially thank you so much for all your comments and emails over the weekend regarding preschool - you're the best and I'm a lucky blogger. Really. 


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