Mommy Ever After » Pre-School

With all of the things I worry about…

mommyeverafter — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:52:31 +0000

Last week in school, my daughter’s class shared the indoor play area with the Pre-K. I was so tickled to see many of the older girls fawning over my daughter, as they held her hand and walked her around, pushed her in a play car and even taught her some of their games.
But my daughter, fearless and determined, wanted to hula hoop. So, she marched over to one of the little five-year-old boys and grabbed his hoop. And he was happy to share. He let her get it in with him and helped her to try to figure it out.
And this whole thing made me smile.
And then, yesterday came, and my daughter and I had to walk through that same Pre-K classroom in order to get to the playground.
And when the little boy spotted us, he ran in our direction.
“Hey,” he called to me,
eager to get my attention.
“Is she old enough to Skype?”
This five year old was asking me if he could video chat with my daughter.
…
So, with all the things I worry about,
all of the things that keep me up at night and give me bouts of The Cray,
I never expected that having to ward off older boys from my 22 month old
would be one of them.

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“with glasses.”

mommyeverafter — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:57:11 +0000

originally published on Little Four Eyes
Something happened, recently;
In fact, many somethings:
My baby daughter became a kid;
She started to go to school;
She got recognized for her glasses.
Back in the early days, when her diagnoses and spectacles were so new,
my greatest fear was that she’d be judged.
I worried that she would be ridiculed
and prayed that she would not be marginalized.
I hoped that people would be able to look beyond the tiny, wire frames that sat upon her nose,
and not see a girl who was bespectacled,
but instead, a girl who was being spectacular.
I hoped. I wished. I waited.
And then, she grew up.
She started preschool.
She met children.
She made new friends.
And, by coincidence, we found out that another girl in her class had the very same name.
I wrestled with the idea of how to tackle the name situation, as I am in the role of both mother and teacher,
and with the girls being so young, I wanted to avoid as much confusion as possible.
Should I call my daughter by her full name, although she’s used to going by the abbreviation?
Should I tack on the first initial to their last name?
But, before I could come up with the right answer,
it was handed to me;
handed to me by two, tiny, sticky, toddler hands.
A little boy in the class, for whom my daughter has the utmost affection, began to ask for her on his drive to school in the morning.
His mother shared with me that as they would pull into the parking lot, he would ask for his teachers, the puppets, and my daughter.
And he would say her name, and then, to be absolutely clear, he would modify it, by saying,
“…With glasses.”
His mother told me this with a smile.
Her son loved my daughter. His friend. His friend with glasses.
And when I heard this, I was overcome with great emotion.
For all those many days and weeks and months, I had felt so worried that my daughter would not be seen for who she was
for what she could do,
and here it was: The affirmation of my fears. My kid was the little girl who was known for having glasses, and even given a nickname, as such.
And as soon as her words hit me,
I felt
absolutely
nothing
but
love.
I thought it was precious.
I felt grateful.
I felt proud.
Because for me, her glasses are just one of the many things that maker her special. And they make her special to her new friend. And they have absolutely nothing to do with why he loves her.
He loves her because she shares his obsession with animals. He loves her because they do puppet shows for one another. He loves her because they sit quietly together, in the corner, and read books. And he loves her enough to have a nickname for her. And it is true. She’s with glasses,
but she’s also with so much more.

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The very best.

mommyeverafter — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:17:57 +0000

Listening to my husband, as he brags to his parents
and regales his friends
with tales of cuteness from our daughter’s school day
is one of the most joy-filled experiences imaginable…
…second only to the exquisite gift of witnessing these moments of cuteness firsthand.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,
but being a parent has made me a better teacher
and being a teacher has most certainly made me a more blessed parent.
My daughter now knows how to wear a backpack
and climb up the big slide
and clean up toys
and dance to the recorder
and use a bigger kid as a footstool.
Seriously, this whole school thing…it’s just the best. The very best.
Well, second only to the love I see in my husband’s eyes
as he wells up with tears
and talks about his little girl
and how proud he is of her…
for how she has grown up so much in just two days…
for how she dances…
for how she is so loved.
Oh, how proud I am to call them mine.

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mommyeverafter — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:33:02 +0000

It just occurred to me that there may be one major upside to having delivered my daughter via unplanned c-section.
Being a preschool teacher, my kids have a million questions. For everything.
Watching their teacher’s pregnancy from start to finish really put them over the edge. As you can imagine, the two main, recurring questions were:
“How did the baby get in there?”
And
“How is the baby going to come out?
The question of the latter was resolved hastily when one of my four-year-old boys raised his hand and explained to his friends that the baby was going to come out of my ‘gina.
Enough said.
However, I think I’ve found the solution.
The next time that my students ask me where my baby came out, I’m able to point to my tummy and explain that she came out of here and I that even have a tiny line across my belly to prove it.
Now if only telling them how she got in there was so easy.

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