It's Preschool Time

One of the reasons that Kate was so excited about her birthday was because she knew that once she turned 3, she was going to school. On her birthday, she officially aged out of our state's early intervention program, where she has been receiving weekly speech therapy. They then transitioned her into our county's preschool program, where she continues to receive speech services once a week.

So the week following her birthday, her Daddy loaded her up for the traditional first-day-of-school breakfast. As usual, she wanted Daddy's food more than her own:)

It has been a bittersweet transition for this mama. On the one hand, she is my baby. I have had so many questions - Will the new speech therapist know her stuff? Will the teacher be sensitive to racial/cultural/adoptive issues? Will they respect my rights as a parent? Will Kate be happy? Will she regress in her attachment? Will she understand that I am not abandoning her every day? Will she pick up horrible things from the other children? Will she learn anything? And on and on and on. Not to mention the fact that I have not been the biggest proponent of preschool around. (Someday I will have to tell you how my perspective regarding preschool has changed over the years.)

On the other hand (and to answer some of the above questions), her teacher (who Kate calls Miss Whoa-Ah) has been wonderful. She has something like 5 nieces and nephews who have been adopted from China, two of which have CL/CP. Is that cool or what? Her classroom is multicultural/multiracial, and I feel like that is respected. Kate loves loves loves it. She looks forward to it from the minute she gets home until she can go again. Yesterday we were cuddling and she said, "Miss Whoa-Ah calls me Kate NaNa" and she giggled. I asked her if she liked that and she said, "Yeah, I see Miss Whoa-Ah in two more days!" (No, that's not her real name, but it's pretty daggone cute, ya?)

Another plus is that for the first time in more than a year, I have scheduled alone time. Yes, ladies and gentleman, between the hours of 9 and 12, two days a week, it is possible that I will be without children. However, since things never go according to schedule, my children have been sick for the last two weeks straight and I still haven't had that alone time. At the moment everyone is healthy, and they are all supposed to leave my house tomorrow morning. What in the world will I do with three whole hours? It is entirely likely that I will waste it, but it's time without children and I will do what I want, so there!