To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn

The internet is full of stories like this today, and I’ll add ours to the mix.

It finally arrived. Sabrina’s first day of preschool. We’ve been waiting and waiting for this day, and yet, it still feels like it snuck (no, grammar zealots, I will not use sneaked, it’s just weird) up on me. Clearly, she’s been ready for some type of school for a very long time. She’s even tried to join Sammy’s classes for the past year and change, so it was a no brainer to enroll her in some kind of program. And since Sammy had a pretty decent preschool experience here, we didn’t have to far to go to figure out where to send her. I did waffle for awhile on whether she really needed to go to school at 3 - she’s my baby, she’s smart, it’s expensive, shouldn’t I keep her at home being a little kid for just a little longer, all very good reasons. After all, we’d gone through the same merry go round when Sammy’s pre-K teachers asked if she was coming to the 2 year old class. We declined then, but despite my mommy-clouded eyes, there was no mistaking we needed to do this now.

Of course, we’d have to mount the gigantic obstacle of potty training. Had to be done before entry. Hard stop. Crap.

(We’ve done our best, but my sweet baby girl is capital S Stubborn. For the purposes of school 2 days a week, 5 hours at a stretch, she’s potty trained. But for realz, yeah, it’s gonna be awhile.)

And so, today. We took her brother to school, got in a quick run through the neighborhood, grabbed her princess backpack (natch), and headed out the door. All summer long, she’s been excited, save for a few I don’t wanna gos the past couple of days, but anything could happen. With me snapping pictures every 16 nanoseconds, she marched down the hall and turned into her classroom. Her teacher welcomed her, helped her find her spot to put her backpack and lunchbox (also princess, clearly), showed her how to find her name for the attendance chart, and sent her off to play for awhile. She started to put her fingers in her mouth, a sure sign of nervousness, so I started to fret a little. But Sabrina found a dollhouse and a girl named Hannah, and that was it. I tried to get a few more pictures, but her record for never really looking at the camera remained in tact, so I kissed her goodbye and told her I was leaving. She kept playing. I told her for real, I was leaving. She kept playing. So I asked her if she wanted me to go. “Mm hmm.” Well, then.

When I came around the corner to pick her up, I saw her sitting there, smile on her face, looking for all the world like she’s old hat at this, and that’s really when my heart broke a little. She’s my baby. She’ll always be my baby. But today, the rest of the world saw the beginnings of a little person. Wow.

Seriously, Kid, would it kill you to look a little to the left?