preschool day two

I wasn't tremendously concerned about Nate having separation issues at preschool, but he cares even less about my presence than I'd expected. This morning was day two of preschool orientation, which involved leaving him in the classroom for a two-hour period while I hung out with other parents (as much as I'm trying to be p.c. by saying "parents," everyone there was female. Such is life.) drinking coffee and talking about leaving our kids. It was a basically an unofficial, non-anonymous support group.

When we arrived at school we put some stuff in Nate's locker (clothing and diapers, mostly) and he then waltzed on into the classroom, leaving me and my big belly stuck behind a group of parents waiting outside the doorway with their sniffling kids. I eventually make my way inside and Nate's clear across the room playing with playdough and a garlic press, and he clearly can't give two poopy diapers about me. Everyone else seemed to have a parent still attached, and I couldn't decide if I was supposed to stick around or leave, so I had to track down a teacher to see if I was dismissed (I was). Then I try to find the parents' hang out room, and I am hanging out by myself because I really am the first person to unglue herself from her toddler. I did score some points with the other moms because coffee had been set up but not brewed, so I cleverly plugged in the coffee pot, resulting in a much needed caffeine drip for pretty much everyone who entered the room.

There were a couple of parents with tearful kids (who had, in turn, tearful parents) but in general our presence in the building with pretty unnecessary. The school - mostly the administrators, but also the classroom aids - did a nice job updating us on what our kids were doing. It was like having our own personal spy. Nate was playing with playdough. Cyrus painted a picture ("was it of a dinosaur?" his mother asked. "I don't know," says the teacher, "it was a lot of paint.") Nate had seconds at snack. No surprise there. Saydee is not crying, although she's not talking much either. Now Cyrus and Nate are playing with trucks... you get the drift. Then at the end of the day we made our way back to the classroom and the kids were let out into the hall. Out comes Cyrus. And Saydee. and pretty much everyone else. But Nate's still busy doing his own thing, playing around and completely oblivious to his anxious mom out in the hallway.

After school, Nate and I went out for a special lunch at Brueggers, and he informed me that he played with playdough, the sand table, they read a book that was not about rabbits, the teacher sang a song, and he played with a cement mixer because someone else (perhaps Cyrus?) was playing with the dump truck. All in all, a good start to the school year. Let's hope it stays that way!