Pre-school Open House

Tomorrow is the first day of pre-school, which is always difficult (for me, not for Eli). As much as I welcome a “break,” it’s still hard to leave him. Maybe it’s because my “break” usually consists of coming home and cleaning like a wild woman until I have to pick him up. That may be more difficult this year, considering Georgia doesn’t take morning naps anymore, and has taken to chasing the vacuum around screaming. Hmmm . . .

With a new year of pre-school comes a new year of other parents who are always fun to assess. Eli’s class is rather small this year, so I won’t have the wide array of parental units to judge – I mean analyze – I meet become friendly with! Anyway, I’m sure I will meet some good ones.

Eli and I went to pre-school open house last week. It was just a little set-up so you could go in and meet the teachers and see the room. We were there about one minute when Eli turned to me and said. “Go! You can go now!” I’m sure deep down he’s really going to miss me, right?

I just said that I get to stay for the open house, and I’ll drop him off next week. He looked disappointed. Hmph! He went over to pull out construction toys and work on building some torture device as I chatted with his teachers. I noticed another little boy go over to play with Eli as his parents stood there hovering.

Gee, that looked familiar. Last year, Eric and I both went to the open house, complete with Georgia (who was two months old) strapped to my chest, and I was almost in tears at the thought of leaving my first-born at the hands of strangers (well-qualified strangers, but still). Even though I’m still hesitant, at least I’m improving.

I went over to chat with the new parents. I asked them if they had anymore children. Yes, they had a three-month old daughter at home. Great, I thought. I have something in common with these people. I told them I had a daughter at home, too. Then the husband said, “Isn’t it great when you get all your bases covered with the first two kids!” I just laughed and said, “Yes! One boy. One girl. We’re through!”

That is when wife’s lips formed a tight line and she shot a dirty glance at her husband. Uh-oh! He seems oblivious to his wife’s body language. I immediately get it. She wants more kids. I don’t know if he knows that yet, but from the look on her face, those two will definitely be having another baby at some point.

Unfortunately, wife then turns hostile to me, and offers nary a smile when her husband and I chat about our sons’ fascination with bugs. I moved on. I went to talk to the mother of the shy girl who was busy with the Play-Doh. She smiled at me, but seemed way too interested in the purple piece of pizza her daughter was constructing to engage in much conversation.

I went over to Eli and said, “Are you ready? Let’s go get coffee (chocolate/banana milk for him) and go to the library.” He put his toys away, excited at the prospect of a treat. We bid adieu to Miss Ginny and Miss Kathy, and went on our way, anxious for a brand new week of pre-school. It should be interesting, to say the least.