Ruby Starts Preschool

First, though, a little history of our time together. Before Ruby was born, I had requested a year's maternity leave from the Chapel Hill school system. This generous amount of leave is pretty much a given to anyone who wants it. Ruby and I had a glorious year at home together, taking winter walks in the Baby Bjorn, taking summer dips in the kiddy pool, making faces at each other, all that mother-infant bonding stuff. Despite the sleepless nights and poopy diapers, I couldn't have imagined wanting it any other way.Once the one-year mark started to approach, I began to feel very sad about returning to work and having Ruby in full-time daycare/preschool. (I still don't really get the difference between the two). So, we entered into her 2nd year of life together thanks to the family-friendly extended maternity leave offered by the school system. Then, during the next few months I decide to resign from the school system entirely. After all, by this time I'm tutoring ESL students on the side and we're doing OK having me home and not bringing in the big schoolteacher paycheck (!) All was well until, oh, say, June of this year. Ruby hits 18 months and the terrible two's. (Some say that the terrible two's really refer to the second year of life! That's what I'm hoping, anyway). I'm thinking "why did I give up my day job?"

Then I remember the preschool applications I filed when Ruby was just a mere few months old! Thankfully, my first choice has space for Ruby two mornings a week! Enough to make this mama feel that some sanity might just be recovered.

So, on September 5 Ruby had her first day at Mi Escuelita Spanish Immersion Preschool. I didn't anticipate any problems dropping her off at school; she's done so well being left at the YMCA childcare center or at friends' houses. (For those of you with younger kids, she HATED being dropped off at the Y at first when she was about 14-15 months old, but time (or maturity) healed that wound, I suppose). And, as expected, she was a champ. I kissed her a beso goodbye and she never cried. When I came to pick her up four hours later, 1.5 hours after her usual naptime, I certainly expected a meltdown. None. She was eating her cute little lunch with her cute little classmates and just smiled and chomped. There was nothing cuter or sweeter than seeing her sitting at her little table eating cheese pizza and green beans and fruit cocktail and drinking milk with her buddies and her teacher, having spent the whole morning away from me, doing just fine, to make me feel all proud and happy and sad at once. I took her home at 12:45 and she went instantly to bed for a nap.

She's in what you'd call a "language explosion" right now, saying new words every day, imitating everything we say and has been putting several words together for a while now ("shoes on" or "more milk" or "no kiss") so I am curious to see what being in an all-Spanish environment will do for her language. Will she speak Spanish at school and English at home? You'll just have to keep tuning in to find out!