My Peanut is a Preschooler

At 6:20 this Tuesday morning a tiny little girl stood next to my bed and said brightly "Mommy, it's time for school!" I stumbled downstairs with her, fed her breakfast and tried to wake up.

At 6:40 she said "Don't forget my backpack, Mommy. Let's go!"

She was very upset to discover that Mommy thinks that 6:40 is a bit on the early side for school.

By 7:30 she was fully fed, fully dressed, piggy tailed, packed up and beyond impatient to leave.

By 7:50 she had received a goodbye hug from StinkyMan, though we were nowhere near ready to go.

At 8:05 Grammy arrived to stay with the other kids so that Mommy could give her full first day of school attention to Peanut.

On the 10 minute drive to school Peanut talked about how fun school was going to be. She talked about friends and playing outside and teachers. She said it was StinkyMan's school and I reminded her that now it was her school. That piece of information was processed with a BIG smile.

She entered the school with confidence, stopping to hug a familiar teacher and sauntered into her room. The only blip was when she whispered to me "Mommy, I want to play outside!"

"In a little while" I promised. "Can I have a kiss?"

And she kissed me and found a place to play. With a wave over her shoulder, I was dismissed.

I held myself together pretty well. It probably helps that I have one more baby at home. But what nearly reduced me to tears was not watching her leave me with ease, or leaving my tiny girl for 3 hours.

No, it was a note I found in her backpack from her big sister.

"Hi Peanut! Have a fun day at school! Love, Curly"

Just like the notes I slip into Curly's lunchbox, so had big sister done for little sister.

It's days like these and things like that that let me know that somehow I'm doing this Mommy thing right.