Dropping off the babe to school...

I am not trying to be rude with this entry and certainly mean no offense to the mother referenced here. It is just that this is an emotional day for me. You see, 3 of the "big babies" are moving out of the Bumblebee room and into the next classroom at school. The transition process for this has been going on for months, and I knew it was coming. Lola, Conrad and Molly are moving on up. Good for them. The only problem is this means 3 new babies will be joining Gabby's class and Gabs will now be considered to be a "big baby." Which can only mean that she is months away from the same type of transition and I AM NOT READY! Not at all really. I miss how little she used to be. I am still adjusting to the fact that she has her funky little crawl and has begun walking anywhere she feels safe enough to grab onto something stable to help her along. And let's face it, those other kids are bigger, tougher and much more mobile. How will she defend herself against them at the snack table or with the blocks? Actually, I have already seen that she can and will defend herself thanks to lessons learned from her bigger and tougher cousins Carter and Evan. But still, I AM NOT READY!!!

So there was already a gray cloud over my head this morning. It was a strange morning. Woke up late, which isn't all that strange lately actually. Frantically pumped, fed the dogs, got baby food ready to go, got dressed, woke up baby, got her dressed, gathered extra outfits and blanket for her cubby at "school," loaded her and all of her stuff in the car even later. Buckled her in, turned on the car, applied mascara, put car into reverse, drove 3 1/2 blocks to 'school' where I then unloaded baby, grabbed all of her stuff, frantically looked for key card to enter school, signed her in, walked into Bumblebee room, put milk in the fridge, food in the cupboard, clothes in the cubby, blankie in the crib, filled out daily instruction sheet and then noticed something very strange. One of the other mothers had actually TYPED out a full-page sheet of instructions for their child. This was their baby's first day at "school" and there were detailed instructions for feeding, sleeping, playing, fussiness, clothes, diapers, etc. I looked at my quick instructions for the day which constituted of "Will bring more milk, fruit am, veggies pm" and felt a combination of being both extremely insufficient and extremely relieved to not be that anal.

Then I realized that since Gabby hadn't been to "school" for 13 days, this was kind of like dropping her off again for the first time. I bit my lip, took a deep breath as I kissed her good-bye and managed to not cry until I got out to the car - which was lucky because Isabel & Molly's mom said she was feeling the same way as we walked out. We both paused in our cars before heading off to work. Will it ever get easier?