Preschool "Eve-a"

Tomorrow my little baby starts preschool!

As I look at her right now, I feel like I am living one of those car commercials where the dad is leaning in the passenger side window giving the "rules of the road" riot act to a 3 year old in the driver's seat only for her to turn into a teenager in the next frame. How is she old enough to go to preschool tomorrow???

She will be going to the University of Delaware's Laboratory Preschool two mornings a week. This school is run by the Early Childhood Department at UD, which is the program I graduated from and currently work for. As an undergrad, I did observations in all the classrooms and had a field placement in the Kindergarten. Designed as an Early Education research facility, the classrooms each have connecting observation booths where observers and researchers can go and conduct their business without interrupting the flow of the class or stealing the precious attention of the young children. In order to assist these individuals there to research, each child has a name tag on their backs so that if someone comes in and starts a project on "Jack" they can easily locate him when they come back next week. I clearly remember staring at these name tags while doing observations in college. They are smaller than the back of a toddler, so maybe 4 inches across and the names are written in gorgeous teacher handwriting, but regardless, nothing can make a 13 digit name fit comfortably on one of these tags. I will admit to considering this when we chose Eva's name. Three letters. It would fit very nicely.

I put Eva on the wait list for the 2011/2012 Two-Year-Old class when she was six months old. I was late to do this. She was WAY down on the list! Good thing I am an alumni and current employee! PHEW!

So tomorrow is the day. I already paid this month's tuition. I turned in her health appraisal and all paperwork already. We completed her "family photo book" homework weeks ago. Matt is taking the day off of work. She will wear her "back to school" Hello Kitty tshirt and secure sneakers. Her Winnie the Pooh backpack will be packed by bedtime tonight and will be hung with a hoodie by the door. A snack and juice cup will be prepped in the fridge for easy morning access. We will probably have to wake her up tomorrow morning because that's what the trend is. If we have somewhere to go early, she wants to sleep in. We will give her a hearty breakfast that she will resist eating (she isn't much of a breakfast eater) and take her "first day of school" picture. We we drive to UD as a family and hold her hand as she walks to her classroom, excited to be at school. We will help her put her things in her cubby, greet Miss Debbie and Miss Terry (the current student teacher) and get oriented. And then we will kiss her goodbye, tell her we love her infinity very muches and are so very proud of her. We will walk out the door as two proud parents and step into that observation booth. We'll watch them put on her "Eva" name tag.

We are prepared for tears. I think ours will be bigger than hers...