First Day of Nursery School

Well, as usual, it didn't go as I had expected. Nothing ever exactly does. Actually, it went a lot better.

She was nervous this morning before we left the house, even though she'd been asking for WEEKS since she first saw a school, that she wanted to go "play with the kids".

We brought her off a little early since we had to bring a bag of clothes and diapers and wanted to get her set up before her day began. When we walked in, she was happy to say 'hello' to the director, whom she knows, and then to the teacher. This was a good sign as she's become more shy around people she doesn't know and often will not say 'hi' to people she does know casually if she's not interested. The teacher immediately started showing Carolina around the classroom and all the toys to play with, even before I took off her coat.

Essentially she was ready to start playing and we just needed to get out of the way!

When I asked her to kiss me goodbye she said, "You leaving?"I told her yes, that I was leaving and she would stay with the kids and her teacher. I would come back soon after her snack and we'd go home to have lunch and a nap. She thought about it a second and then said, "Ok." And kissed me goodbye.

We walked out of her classroom and on to the sidewalk and I started to cry a little. Ok, more than a little. I couldn't believe it! I was upset and she wasn't. I didn't want her to be upset at all, in fact I didn't think she would, but I REALLY didn't think I'd be bothered. I composed myself (thank you, husband) and he went off to work and I went home. Well, first, I went to a store to look around since I had the feeling that I've needed to get something but CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT IT IS. Walking around the store without having someone talking at me constantly was how I remembered what I needed. And finally bought.

I then spent the morning cleaning the apartment. It was dirtier than usual after the guy came on Tuesday to fix the glazing on the bathtub and I hadn't had a chance to do it while she was awake since we got back yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, my son wasn't too happy about me being so active, but I got it done.

I realized I still had 2 hours left and I could do some laundry. Without having to get her ready to go outside to the laundromat every 30-40 minutes to bring it, come home, take it out of the wash and put into the dryer, come home, and then get it out of the dryer. It went a lot faster.

When I got to the school to pick her up, just before 12, she was on line at the door with the teacher who told me she was a dream to have in class. That she was very well behaved, she danced and played with the other kids, and ate her snack and didn't give her any problems. I could tell that the teacher doesn't have a lot of 'easy' kids in her class, so she seemed to be more appreciative that Carolina was so good than anything. The teacher told me that Carolina didn't like her bananas in her cereal. I said I wasn't surprised as she is not supposed to eat bananas, it's like an allergy. And then the teacher told me, "Oh SHE'S the one with that problem." (I had expressly written a note on her form, and told the director, she can't have dairy, nuts or bananas.)

I didn't get mad but explained that she doesn't like them and they are a problem. And I made sure they only gave her a little bit of milk. Any more, or even a little, and she gets sick to her stomach with really bad diarrhea.

Carolina then told me on the way home that she had cereal. And she "loves bananas". I told her that she shouldn't eat bananas since they hurt her belly. She then told me she wanted more of the "purple cereal" for lunch. I asked her what that was and she just kept saying purple.

THEN she mentioned it was also orange and yellow. A light bulb went off in my head and I said, "Ohhhh. Is the cereal circles with purple, orange, and yellow?"

She looked at me a smiled and said, "YES!" And I just laughed.

Ah, they gave them Froot Loops, which I would NEVER give to her. That's just my choice as it crosses the line of sugar vs. nutrition too far in favor of sugar. I explained that cereal is only at school as a special treat, we don't have it at home. This seems to be an acceptable explanation.

After a lunch of toast, by request, we read some books and she was off to a nap by 1pm. She was yawning right about 12.30.