More Than Ready

Well, it's happened. I now have two of three children in school. Sort of. Lana started preschool on Tuesday. She's only going on Tuesdays and Thursdays for three hours, but it's a start. We weren't sure how Lana was going to handle going to school. Well, that's not entirely true. I thought she might cry a bit but be okay. Andy on the other hand thought she would have complete fits. I was pretty sure that wouldn't happen. I had already been through that scenario with Sonya, and that wouldn't happen twice, right?

Here's the back story, because I wasn't writing this blog when Sonya started preschool. Too bad. The stories I had then! Anyway, when Sonya started preschool she cried every day I dropped her off for TWO WHOLE MONTHS. She was only going twice a week too, but still, you'd think after the first weekor two she'd get over it. Nope. We would get in the car and head toward the school and the sniffling would start. She only cried REALLY hard for the first couple weeks. Then it was just a minor cry for another month and a half. Eventually she got over it. Well, that is until we moved her to a different preschool six months later. I thought she would cry the first day or two. She surely knew how this worked by now. I drop her off, she has fun with other kids for three hours, I pick her up. Again, nope. At least it only took her a month and a half that time. I'm almost positive by Halloween she wasn't crying anymore when I dropped her off.

The good thing to come out of that was there was no crying when we took her to Kindergarten last year. Well, at least on her part. I might have cried just a bit, but she was fine the first day. The second and third day there were a couple tears, but that hadto do with some apprehension she had about finding "her line" at the beginning of school. Once she knew what she was doing, all was good and she loved going to school. Still does.

I guess you can see why were a little gun shy about Lana, and what she would do when we dropped her off by herself for the first time at school. We prepared her all summer for the fact that she was going to school, just like Sissy. We told her she'd only be going in the mornings two days a week, but that we wouldn't be there with her when she was at school. She seemed to be okay with the idea, but you never know until you drop them off. I remember Sonya saying she couldn't wait to start preschool until she realized exactly what was happening. I was fine with some tears, I was just hoping they wouldn't last as long as Sonya's did. I did not, however, expect what we did get.

NOT ONE SINGLE TEAR.

I mean nothing. No sniffles, no "when are you coming back?", no "I don't want you to leave"-NOTH-ING!

We all took her on Tuesday, because Sonya has to be dropped off after Lana and then I had a class with Georgia. So the whole family went into the room with her. She immediately ran over and started playing with a kitchen set. Then she spotted play-dough on the table. She sat down in front of it and started rolling it out. Andy and I kinda stood there and looked at each other wondering if it was going to hit her what was going on. We all had to leave pretty quickly to get to our final destinations on time, so I decided then wasas good as time as any to rip the band-aid off, so to speak.

"Okay, Lana, we're going to leave now!" I announced.

"Bye mom!" She said, barely turning from her play-dough.

I leaned down to give her quick kiss and Andy did the same. Sonya and Georgia also kissed her goodbye. By the end of the farewell, she seemed to be getting annoyed with us. So we all left the room waving to her as we did, with her smiling and waving right back. We got about twenty feet from the door when Andy decided tojust peek in and make sure she hadn't burst into tears as soon as we left. She hadn't.

I wasn't calling this a victory just yet though. There's always crying after an hour, or crying the next time they get dropped off, when they realize they are going back. But here I sit on Thursday afternoon writing this and I can honestly say, she has not shed one tear about going to school and being away from us. On the one hand I'm obviously psyched about that fact. On the other hand...WTF?! Why DIDN'T she cry about being away from me?! It's not like she's ever gone to daycare and is used to this sort of thing. Sure they've had babysitters, but it's much different when someone comes to their own house to watch them, and when you drop them off at a strange place.

After thinking about it for a while, though, I realized Lana probably really needed this. Poor thing has been smushed in the middle of three girls since she can remember, really. This is a chance for her to be independent of her sisters and of me. A chance for her to make her OWN friends. She also knows this school well, since it's the one Sonya went to for a year. We dropped her off and picked her up three days a week, so Lana recognizes the building, the classrooms, and the teachers. I'm sure that's a comfort in some way too.

I suppose when it comes down to it, I'd ratherhave no tears than two months of them. Although a little sadness on her part would have been okay. I know I was a little sad to see her go. It is only preschool, but I know what's right around the corner in two years, and damn does it come MUCH faster than you imagined.