The first day of preschool is coming up, and, while the husband is having some strange reactions to having a child old enough to be in school of any kind, I am at least as excited as J, if for no other reason than getting started means an end to the preparatory steps.
We received a packet with with 6 or 7 forms to fill out and several letters letting us know what other items we needed to bring with us to our orientation, a total of 13 separate things. This packet was infinitely frustrating to me, mainly because there was no comprehensive list delineating our responsibilities. Instead, everything was scattered throughout the paragraphs, topsy turvy, in a most maddening way. I wanted to walk into the office when I arrived and say "here, let me help you rewrite your materials and streamline these infernal communications, making all our lives easier." Instead, I resisted both that and the urge to volunteer to be room mother, largely because the responsibilities included coordinating all the other parents/volunteers, which promised to be even more maddening. I did volunteer to help with "funnastics" one Thursday, largely because it was one of the few activities to which I was welcome to bring Baby E. Can I bring the younger brother to field trips (of which there are three) and class parties when I am in charge of them (we had to sign up for two of those)? No. Umm, okay, sure.
Madness aside, orientation was illuminating, particularly the information about the carpool line, an extremely complicated method for getting children out of school at the end of the day. Luckily, in some ways, this is very laid back program, so J will only be there three days a week for three hours a day, and I will only have to deal with the pick up line twice a week because we're carpooling off the island with another family. J's teacher seems sweet and patient, exactly the kind of person you would want to be with your child, and she sent a bag of treasures home for J which he loves without end already, so he's happy to go meet her now. We have an hour long trial run on Thursday (E is not invited once again), and then school starts in earnest on Tuesday.
The husband keeps asking me what I am going to do with all my "free" time, and I keep resisting the urge to punch him and instead guffaw heartily in his direction. Free time? I'm planning on using my hours with just one child (which are hardly free) running errands and completing tasks that are impossible with two. Most preschool days will be even busier than they are now! In the meantime, J will finally learn that "eleventeen" is not a number (unless you're some indy rocker, which he is not), how to form the elusive "J" in his name, why lowercase letters are not just a story his Mommy made up to make him mad, and (hopefully) how to play better with others. Looks like we'll all be busy!
Finally, a request: any good ideas for a preschool Halloween party?? And please, no treat bags are allowed (because we certainly wouldn't want THAT for a HALLOWEEN party, now would we?), and one kid is allergic to peanuts. (His young mom signed up to be the room mother--huzzah!)
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