Out with the old...

I'm not exactly sure what exactly I've signed on for. See, the past few weeks have been a blur. My just turned 4-year old, A, had her last day of preschool on a Tuesday and had her first day at "Big School" the very next day. My just turned 4-month old, S, has been having these mean fits of diarrhea and the poor little guy has about the worst nappy rash I have ever seen. S has also been drooling like anything and trying to stuff anything he can get a hold of into his little mouth. My days have been revolving around pick-ups and drop-offs and changing diapers almost every hour and my days would end with me wanting to go to bed for the night even if the sun was still out. It always wasn't like this you see.

A used to go to a small cozy and very homey preschool. Back before I was pregnant with S, I would walk from our house down the road and make a left at the main intersection and then walk uphill until I would reach a bright yellow fence that marked the entrance to A's preschool. The school was actually an old house where they had knocked down most of the inside walls on the ground floor to make room for their montessori workspace. There was parking good enough for 6 cars inside (9 if you got creative) and kids had to walk through a small yellow gate that was the same height as the average 5 year old. There were cubby holes right alongside the gate where the kids had to put their shoes in before they could enter the main door of the school. The main door, it seems, used to be a back entrance where tile-covered walls and a long counter with a kitchen sink and a washer and dryer greet you as you enter. In the middle of the ex-kitchen, is a long low table lined with kid sized chairs where the bigger kids have their meals. When A started at this preschool she used to have her classes on the second floor of the schoolhouse and snacks and lunch were eaten upstairs too with the other little kids. But during her 4th birthday, I had brought a cake to school and I was ushered into the ex-kitchen/meal area at the ground floor where her class had already gathered with their lunchboxes. This is the same place where the kids ate the brownies we brought to celebrate A's last day in preschool.

We were all very fond of A's preschool. There were quite a number of kids in her class so she was used to being in a bigger group of children but it never seemed like there were *that* many kids because I would see the same faces during drop off and pick up times each day. It seems most parents got to know each other way- from waiting by the little yellow gate for their child to come out or from trying to navigate around the little parking area where some moms were notorious for blocking other cars and inconveniencing others. The parent get-togethers were few and far between. There had been few coffee mornings but I had only been to one. There were several Parent Support Group meetings but I had never bothered to go because it seemed that the moms who had kids in the school for years were cliquish (but in the end, I realize I had mistaken the friendships that had been built over time for cliques.) There were a number though of notable out of school parent activities that I remember- an Easter picnic, Dad and Me Day (which had a sausage sizzle), Clothes Swap, Toy Drive and Auction and a couple of potlucks and wine and cheese evenings held at the function room of the Beverly Hill condo. Over the course of the year and 4 months that A was at the school, I had forged some friendships with several of the moms from the school, some of which have moved on: to other countries and some to other schools.

Now, it was our turn to move out of the preschool. After 4 long years of being on a waitlist for what everyone claimed to be the best "Big School" in the country, A, who also just turned 4, was offered a spot in kindergarten. We couldn't say no.

So on her last day at her nice homey preschool, I piled A up into our little SUV along with a large paper bag full of magnets to give to her teachers and a foil tray of brownies that we had baked the night before. I made her say her goodbyes as she was to start at "Big School" the very next day.

Now, one could point out that A didn't get a break in between schools. What happened to her summer break you say? Well, as an un-stay-at-home mom, I told my husband that I didn't want a bored 4 year old on my hands for 7 weeks! I just had a baby and I had been struggling keeping both kids entertained in the afternoons that I couldn't imagine doing that 24/7 for 7 weeks. A's homey preschool ran under a different calendar as "Big School" so I was fortunate enough to have no overlapping school breaks that were unmanageable.

Fast forward to today, where I was sitting on a tiny kids chair in A's new classroom watching what was the third orientation since school started a week ago. All the information alone was overwhelming. Show and tell days, library days, class timetables, and foreign language lessons were just some of the things I needed to take note of. Part of me was elsewhere- thinking of S and his visit to his doctor this morning for a jab and a consult about his 5 day bout with diarrhea.

I was one of the last ones to leave the classroom after A's teacher made her presentation. She was talking to one of the dads about volunteering to be class parent and he was politely trying to beg off from taking on the job. Mrs T turned to me and said "Why don't you be the class parent?" Me? Really? Part of me wanted to step up and get involved! The other part of me was thinking, "What in the world do I need to do?". I mumbled a quick "Okay" and then next thing I know I'm trying to reassure myself that I could indeed do it so I say "Yeah! Why not?! I'll do it!" Mrs T thanks me and says she'll pass my name on to the principal and they'll let me know when the first meeting will be.

As I walk out of that classroom, a little bewildered and puzzled about what I just had volunteered for, the only question I have right now is "How in the world will I do it?"

Oh the life of the un-stay-at-home mom.