First day of school! First day of school! After years of anticipation (seriously, Mylie has been begging to go to school for well over a year now), the first day of preschool has finally arrived. Mylie started preschool Friday at one of the local high schools. It’s a great program where the high school students who have taken courses in early childhood education actually teach and more or less run the preschool. I am highly supportive of multi-tasking programs like that, especially when they give high school students such real world responsibilities. The program came highly recommended from a trusted friend as well, so little other research was needed. Mylie feels very grown up and official because she gets to go to school in such a “big big school,” though they’re really only in one small classroom on the corner of the school.

Wednesday, we went for an open house, to learn the ropes and see what’s what. You would think, after counting down the days for so long, that I would be highly prepared for this day. Emotionally, I was very prepared. But, I had neglected to double check the letter we recieved a few weeks ago telling us what to bring. So, I forgot the pictures of our family for her “Mylie” page for the class book. And I forgot the change of clothes to store in her cubby. Luckily, I at least remembered my checkbook so I could pay the tuition.

All was not lost, though. They let us bring home the Mylie page to work on. But the last two days have really been rather crazy, so we didn’t exactly work on it. Great. My daughter’s first lesson about school? How to throw together a project as we’re running out the door. So much for stopping the cycle. I slapped some glue on the back of a family picture (that I had to take out of a frame), and threw it on the page, hoping she could work on it more during free play.

I also remembered to bring her change of clothes, and I double checked the list in the handbook that also said we needed to bring a package of plastic spoons. Of course, it wasn’t until later that day that I read an additional letter that said the plastic spoons were no longer needed, as the preschool had purchased reusable untensils over the summer in an attempt to “go green.” Fabulous. Chalk another uninformed decision up on my mommy board.

My big gaffe of the day came when I made a poor decision on the way to pick her up. I went the way that deep down I knew would get me into trouble, because it’s always slow. But nevertheless, there I was stuck behind trucks and hitting every single red light. So, after a number of lectures about not being late to pick up your children, there I was, running late. When I got to the school, my clock said 11:30 on the nose. But of course, I had to grab Nolan and run into the school, where Mylie was the last student left. To add insult to injury, when I got home, I found a message from the school on my voicemail that was clocked at 11:32, asking if I was on my way.

So there you have it. I’m that kind of parent. The one that forgets permission slips, and lunches, and book orders. I’m the one who’s kid has to tell the teachers, “It’s okay, she’s always late. I’m fine waiting here by myself.” And I’m the one who’s always apologizing to teachers while they put on a fake and rather transparent smile.

Maybe there’s still time. But in the meantime, my neglectful behavior didn’t seem to affect Mylie much. She was more than willing to leave us at the door, with not so much as a wave, though we did finally talk her out of a hug and kiss. And then she was off to commandeer the cornmeal sandbox. And she seems to have picked up the school vernacular very well, because when I picked her up and asked her what she did, she said, “Um, I don’t know. Everything.” I did manage to pry a little more out of her after awhile, and found that she had fun playing on the yellow slide and the turtle in the playground. Sounds like a successful first day of school to me.