Preschool is Perfect

Tonight we had a special night at Lucy's preschool, the Snowball Dance. Parents are welcome to accompany their preschoolers to school, along with siblings, to listen to music, dance, have snacks, and see a magic show. We had a lot of fun, but then I started getting that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. That one that says, "just a few more months of this sublime bliss and then it's all over. Then your little girl is going to be a big shot kindergartener. Then nothing will ever be the same again." It's like the last day of school when you've just had the best year ever and had so much fun and made so many friends, and you just know that no matter what everyone promises each other, you're never going to be able to re-live the awesome school year you just had..

As I've mentioned before, I love preschool. I particularly love this preschool, where Bethany and Connor went before Lucy. Where the teachers know our family. Where I have gotten to know many families throughout the years my kids have been going there. I do have some consolation knowing Mattie will be going there next year (fall 2012).   

Yeah, I'm really going to be a mess when Mattie is in her second year of preschool. Because the thing is, there's this warm and fuzzy feeling that second year, when the kids are all growing up at such an alarming rate, they're getting to know each other, and the parents and teachers are getting to know each other pretty well by this time too. And it gets cumulatively stronger with each of my kids because this is now my 6th year of sending my kids to this school. I've known some of these families since the very beginning of my experience here, when my oldest started preschool. I know the teachers by first name and love them, trusting them wholeheartedly with the care and well-being of my babies. Which is a big deal for someone who has never hired a babysitter. Only trusted family members and friends have ever watched my kids. Leaving my oldest at preschool for the first time was daunting (although certainly not for her) because I was leaving her with strangers. That is definitely no longer the case.

Yes preschool is perfect. Lucy will enjoy the next few months of preschool class parties and birthday parties and letter days and field trips. She will have her preschool graduation and her last preschool class picnic. And I will love seeing her enjoy all of these beautiful things, knowing that in a very short time, they will be distant memories for her. We'll run into a preschool classmate in Target or at the zoo, and she won't even remember ever knowing this kid with whom she shared so many happy times. Sometimes I just wish I could freeze time.

Doing the locomotion

Last  night it snowed. It looks so pretty, I could almost imagine that I love it. Until I have to get in my van and drive in it in a little while. Then... yuck, just yuck.

View from my front door

But I do love when it looks all fresh, and all the tree branches are covered in snow. I'm definitely kicking the kids outside to play today. After they're done cleaning the house.

However, as pretty as it looks, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be heartbroken if I never saw it again. I would have my memories to sustain me. Memories of shoveling, getting my van stuck at the end of my driveway, slipping on ice, sliding all over icy roads (hello? salt trucks? why have you forsaken us????), piles of dingy gray mush that used to be snow and that will linger in random lumps on roadsides and in parking lots until mid-April.  Yep, I'm pretty sure my memories would be enough to get me through the rest of my life snowless.                                                        

View from my back door