Today was Alana’s first day of preschool. SS, her mom, and I took Alana over, along with a bag containing some extra clothes to keep at the school.

Although Alana has been looking forward to starting school, I was a bit worried because I wasn’t sure if she understood that it meant she would be there all day (8am to 3:45pm) without us. The teachers had come by our home a week in advance to meet Alana and do Q&A with us, so Alana was already familiar with the teachers. We really liked that.

When we took her in this morning, we saw her off to the classroom door, and when the teacher took her hand and led her into the classroom, we quietly slipped away without saying goodbye. I was a bit worried that she would feel tricked, or freak out when she realized we were gone. But was actually fine! The teacher said she never had a moment when she realized we were gone, and never even asked again. When the teacher assured her that we were coming back to get her later, she was just like, “OK.”

One thing she had going for her was that most of the other kids in the class started in September, 2013. So Alana (and one other little girl) were the only “new kids” today, so it wasn’t a classroom full of kids being separated from their parents for the first time. The other little girl cried, but Alana didn’t. Alana also had the advantage of being a little older than almost all of the other kids in the class.

The teacher said that Alana didn’t play with the other kids much the first day, and didn’t try to sing the songs (that the other kids already knew but she didn’t), but she had a good time. She was hungry come lunch time, and ate all her lunch (including vegetables). Not only that, but she was the first one done eating! She even beat out the little boy who had previously held the distinction of “fastest eater” in the class of about 20 kids.

She didn’t pee her pants (that has been a problem recently), and had no trouble using the preschool toilet.

At nap time she twirled her hair for a while, but eventually slept for an hour and a half.

When we picked her up at 3:45, she was happy to see us and ready to go, but not panicky or anything. She said she’d be happy to come back tomorrow.

This is all a big relief, because:

1. Alana got into our first choice kindergarten (a private school, but not international or bilingual, so while not super cheap, it’s still affordable).
2. Alana started school right when we needed her to, about 2 weeks before her baby brother is born. It really couldn’t have been planned any better.
3. (Partly out of luck), we managed to minimize the gap between Alana starting preschool and Isaac being born, which means that there will only be a short period of time where we have to pay for a full-time nanny that we can’t full utilize.
4. If the first day is any indication, Alana is taking to preschool very nicely, which means less stress for everyone in the house at a time that’s about to get a lot more stressful already!

I’ll write more about preparations for Isaac next post (soon!).