THE DEFECTOR

I hope Aleita has a good day at preschool today. Last week, she tried to lead a revolt. She moved to a new room - - the “Penguins” room - - a few weeks ago. Prior to that, she had been in the “Bears” room for about a year. So far, the transition to a new environment had gone pretty well. She had had a few rocky moments, but overall, things were no better or worse than they had been for her in her previous classroom.

Apparently on Friday though, Aleita reached an impasse with one of her teachers in the Penguins room. With much fanfare, she announced that she was leaving and going back to the Bears room. She removed her plastic cubby that contains her extra clothes and sunscreen, grabbed her pillow and blanket from her cot, and removed her name from door of the classroom.

In an effort to completely overthrow the Penguin room, she attempted to organize a faction united around her cause. As she dragged her things down the hallway to her old room, she yelled, “Follow me boys!” to her friends in the Penguin room. The teachers reported that the other students were all too stunned and afraid of reprisal to participate in her uprising.

One of her teachers went down to the Bears classroom and explained the Aleita was defecting from the Penguin room. Aleita dumped her stuff right inside the door, hugged her previous teachers and announced, “I’m back!” I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for them to contain their excitement. Kudos to them, however - - they played along with her upheaval plans and invited her to join them for the art project they were just starting to work on. During the art lesson, they made several comments to Aleita that they were so glad she had come back, but they were surprised that a FOUR year old would want to be in the room with THREE year olds….but that was ok…..she must like THREE year olds and acting like the THREE year olds do. From what we were told, they laid it in pretty thick for her. About 20 minutes later as the art project neared completion, she announced that she was returning to the Penguins room after all and that had decided that she needed to be with the other four year olds after all.

Her teacher in the Penguins room welcomed her back, but did so conditionally. She explained to her that there would be no more renegade action on Aleita’s part, and if she chose to leave again, she would probably have to just stay with the three year olds from now on. Aleita promised her that she was back to stay and vowed to stray now more.

There is a special place in heaven for preschool teachers. God bless them for their patience and ingenuity and of course, for being willing to put up with my crazy child.

THE FIRST DAY AT A NEW SCHOOL

Aleita started at a new daycare today. Because of our move, we have put her in a daycare on the opposite end of town. It is actually the same company that owns both daycares, so it is nice because the structure is basically the same. Still, I worried a little bit about how her first day would go. Most transitions are not easy, but I figured that being three and going to a new school would be an especially difficult one. Apparently, I was wrong.

I expected some trepidation on her part and I completely expected full-on mom clinginess when I dropped her off this morning. Chris and I had really worked on talking up the new school this weekend, yet I still figured that the moment I got ready to say goodbye this morning, she would run for me and adhere herself to me and tell me to stay. Aleita is not a particularly clingy kid, but in unfamiliar situations, she does seek the comfort of dear ol’ mom and dad.

Well, I was apparently wearing Teflon this morning because there was no sticking involved. I had carved out a large block of time this morning so that I would be able to stay around if she decided she wanted me to spend some time there with her while she got accustomed to her new surroundings. I kid you not, I was in and out of that daycare in about four minutes, tops.

I walked Aleita in and we were met by the director who was expecting us. She showed us to her room, and Aleita found her cubby and hung up her bag. She washed her hands (they have to wash hands every morning when they first arrive) and then the director showed us to the playground where Aleita’s class was playing. Aleita’s new teacher greeted her cheerily, but she was hardly listening. She was taking in the new playground equipment and the new kids. Her eyes totally lit up when she saw two kids riding on tricycles, and a third trike waiting, as if it knew she was coming and was reserved just for her. She turned quickly to me, gave me a quick hug and kiss and said, “bye Mommy – love you.” And she was off.

I waited a few moments to make sure she would be fine, but she never gave me so much as a backwards glance. Within moments, she was on the tricycle and headed off toward the other two kids on their trikes. I smiled as I walked to the car, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. What a great start to a Monday.