It's a School Night!

Drop-off at dance class this evening when much better than last week. Not a waver until we were coming out of the potty, right before class, when she said, "I'm gonna miss you."

I told her, "Yes, but you'll be fine.  "It's just the bye-bye that's scary, remember?" (Thank you, Auntie Kay, for that revelation!) She said, "Really?" and I thought for a moment that we might be home free.

But, a minute later (after yanking off her sneakers and shoving on her ballet shoes, because the class was standing in line waiting for her), there were tears when it was time to actually go in.

I reminded her again that, "It's just the bye-bye that's scary," gave her a "kissing hand" and then we did it "fast, like a Band-aid," and I handed her to the teacher and they went in.

I'm told that she was fine as soon as she was in class, and she had a huge smile on her face when she came out. Then, as we were walking to the car, she said, "Bye-bye, dance class!"

I am quite relieved, and thrilled at the progress since last week, but I'm bracing myself for the first day of Mother's Day Out tomorrow.

Her backpack and lunch are all packed. She's got two cheese sticks, a squeezy applesauce, some spinach (her request), some fruit snacks, a yogurt and a juice box. Much more reasonable that what I sent her last time, but still probably more than she'll eat. I've told her that each day, she can choose "a protein, a fruit, a veggie and a sometimes food, and a juice box - special just for school."

Her first choice for protein was a hotdog, but I wasn't so sure about keeping it cold. Then for her fruit, she asked for strawberries (which she doesn't like) and then an apple (which she rarely eats much of) so I suggested strawberry-apple applesauce. Her first choice veggie was bellpepper (which she also rarely eats) so she went with her second choice of spinach.

I'm hoping the spinach wasn't a mistake. I hope it doesn't get wilty (it's in a ziplock, right next to the ice pack) and I hope she doesn't get made fun of, or get told that spinach is yucky.

Yes, I do realize that I'm probably way over-thinking it.

She may not even get a chance to eat her lunch, because originally I was going to pick her up after two hours, before lunch time, but now we're going to see how it's going.

When I told her "You won't take your lunch the first week," she said, "But I'll starve!" I explained that she would be leaving before lunch time, and would not be sitting at the table with no food!

Then I suggested that I call right before they go to gym and have Mrs. D. ask her if she wants to stay for lunch. If so, I'll pick her up right after lunch (a 3-hour stay) and if not, I'll pick her up after gym (2 hours).

She doesn't know it, but whenever she gets picked up, I plan to take her to Starbucks afterward to celebrate, and then the three of us will go out to dinner when Mommy gets home.

Did I mention that Shrike is working days - the super-early shift - this week, so I'm doing this whole first day of school thing on my own. Rah.

Right now, though, she just needs to go the hell to sleep. Shrike "took" her bath and is now reading to her, lots of books about preschool I think. I suspect I'll be summoned soon, but she did actually conk out for her one night last week.

So, if you've got some "brave new student" mojo to send our way tomorrow morning, it would be greatly appreciated!