[A post from the past. Explanation here.]
This one is from way in the past. March, 2009. I told you I had a stack of these things.
For the first few months of Elena’s life, she spent all of her time with her family. She was a pretty good-natured baby, so Julie even took her to work with her. Elena would hang out while Julie worked, occasionally asking politely for some attention.
At about six months, however, she started to be self-propelled. And to grab things. This new activity, while developmentally appropriate, was incompatible with an office environment, so it was time for Elena to start going to “school,” which is what everyone calls the kids’ preschool around here.
So we packed the kids into our newly-purchased double jogger (thanks Craigslist!) and rolled them over to school.
All smiles.
Elena napped in the jogger on the way over to school, saving her energy for the big day. When she got there, she met one of our favorite people in the whole world: Lori! Lori had been Sylvan’s preschool teacher when he started going to school, and she ended up being Elena’s teacher from the age of six months to almost three years.
OK Dad, I'll try this.
Lori predicted that Elena would be so excited that she would only nap about 20 minutes, instead of her usual hour and a half or two hours. She ate and drank everything that was offered. When she woke up from her nap (20 minutes, as Lori predicted), she was very sad. It was the first time she had ever woken up and not found a family member around. Lori, in her infinite wisdom, took Elena to visit Sylvan in his classroom. He touched her gently, introduced her around, and told his friends that he loved her very much, and she calmed down. Big brothers can be useful.
Elena’s first big day at preschool ended at 2:30 when Julie picked her up. She’s been going a couple of days a week since then. She’s in the “big kids” classroom now, with three- and four-year-olds. She is still sometimes sad when she wakes up from her nap, but she’s solving that problem by deciding not to nap at all. Ingenious.