School Days, School Days

It happened. Preschool started up again last Thursday. I jumped for joy, literally, as did Camille.





It's not that I don't like having Camille home. I adore it. It's just that right now, Livvy is extremely conscious of how much time I have, how much of it she occupies by herself ALONE, and how much she doesn't. Needless to say, at the end of Tuesdays and Thursdays when it's just me and the girls, I feel very mentally stretched between the two girls.





As an even bigger bonus, Camille adores going to Mrs. Miller's class and I adore Mrs. Miller and the crew.





So, skip back in time with me to last Thursday at 12:25 p.m. CST. Camille and Liv and I are waiting outside Reeder Elementary School for Mrs. Miller, one of the paras Jessy, and the new para, Pam, to come outside and collect all of the four year-olds.





It was a shining moment. As I began to see all of Camille's returning classmates get out of vans or cars, I told her who was in my line of sight....Hunter, Maria, Mia, Noah, and Joshua. Camille's eyes lit up.





And then out came out Mrs. Miller and Jessy. Even I was excited for Camille.





Jessy bent down, gave Camille a huge hug and whispered, "I love you.....and I missed you so much." Sniff. Double sniff.





I was so proud. Some of the other kids were sobbing. Hanging onto their mothers' legs, running in the opposite direction, waving their hands wildly about. But Camille was raring and ready.





Due to the fact that she was back in her CAM boot and there was an extra-special need for crowd control that day, I helped the teachers walk the kids down to the room. I left Camille at the door without a hitch....and then the drama began.





As predicted, Livvy wanted to stay. She felt cheated. Jipped. Left out. She started sobbing hysterically...."I waaaannnnaaaa staaaaaaay with Mrs. Millllllllllllller!"





Someday, too soon, it will be your turn, Liv.

That night, it was too sweet. I listened to Camille as she played in the bathtub. She was handing out bus assignments to her classmates: "Joshua, you are going with John. Adam, you are going with John. Mia, you are going with Al." These are the moments I love. Learning about her day through her pretend play when she's alone.





Now I must tell the not-so-proud moment of the return to school days. On Friday, at about 3:30 p.m., the end of Camille's school day, I got a phone call from Camille's school. Apparently there had been a whoop-see-do with the van schedule to get Camille back to preschool. Never-the-less, I had to talk to Mrs. Miller to get it straightened out. As an aside, she told me that Camille threw quite a tantrum when it was time to come in from playing with the sidewalk chalk outside. She wanted to stay out and make letters. I believe Mrs. Miller used words like, "laying on the ground, screaming, flailing, and "I've never seen anything like it from her." Ouch.





Mrs. Miller chose to view it as a great thing as it is typical child development and shows will, albeit very strong-will, personal expression, and an all-around display of "knowing what you want and the length you will go to get it."





Er...yeah....that's what I was thinking, too.