Lola went to pre-school

Well yesterday was Lola's first day in the Happy Helpers. :)
All the little classes meet down in the lobby for drop off, so our first steps in were into an echoing lobby full of little ones, half of them crying.  That was pretty overwhelming for my sweet, piggy-tailed, wet-wipe holding baby.  When she's really seeking comfort she sticks that wipe in one of the holes in her head.  There's something about feeling the wet in her ear that sets her at ease. :)
She was rubbing that thing all up and down the side of her face and pushing herself into me.
Her teachers are really sweet young ladies.  She started telling them about her Dora lunchbox right off.

Then I said, "Okay Lola, you're going to go up to your class and I'll see you soon."  And she stuck out her lip and pushed into me.  I just kissed, kissed, kissed her little head and squeezed her some hugs.  Then the teacher said, "This first week is hard for everyone." And she looked at me compassionately, and that's all it took.  I had to work hard to keep the ugly cry from bursting out.  I looked way off at the other classes and blinked the tears away while Lola pushed into me and the teacher pretended I was just fine. :)

When all the kids in the class arrived in the lobby and it was time for them to head up, Lola popped up and was all smiles, piggy-tails bouncing.  Then I started walking out the first set of glass doors and she froze, thumb halfway out of her mouth and staring at me.  And that's when the ugly cry came on (mine, not hers).  I had to escape before all the nice ladies around me felt the need to hug me or I never could have stopped.

I walked to the van and my automatic person opened Lola's door for her.  And then I started crying more.  I didn't know where to go because Sam's didn't open for another hour, so I went home to drink a spinach smoothie.  I walked in the door and just listened to the silence.  The thing I'd dreamed about all my life.  And I said, "I have to get out of here."

Thankfully, I have a friend who just adopted a precious baby boy.  So I slurped down my smoothie, ran to Sam's, and then got to go hold someone else's child.  I'm so excited for them.  It'll just pop into my head that my friend finally has a baby and it makes me so happy.

I hustled around all day and got a lot done.  But I was sooo excited to go pick Lola up.  Her teachers said she did great.  She sang great in music time and loved reading in the library.  I brought her home and had a couple of hours to make some berry butter, read some books, and let her sing her school songs to me.  She says she wants to go back, so I think it was a good experience for her.  I'll get better at this, I guess.