First Day of Preschool!

*sigh* I just feel so sorry for all of you reading this blog. You may have children and love them very much. Or you may not have children at all and be extremely thankful for it. But I still feel so sorry for you that none of you are the parent of Harriet. Because on days like today I am amazed and excited and proud and so in love with her. She is just such an interesting, fun, mature, interactive person, and lately she has been amazing to be around.

Last night she was pretty excited about going to preschool today. You know, just a little. We chose her outfit for the day (read: she chose her outfit), laid it out ready to put on in the morning. I did have to have a little conversation with her about the skirt/shorts thing, because she is very adamant about wearing skirts and dresses lately (due to wanting to be Liesl from TSOM). But after a little incident at a local park where she got a nasty graze from sliding down some bumpy rubber, she has finally understood that shorts are a little more practical for playing in. We also washed her hair ready for the plaits the next day and made sure she could open and close all of the containers in her lunchbag (has a little lion on it, will have to take a photo of her preschool accoutrement, they're very cute).

You have to provide morning tea in a separate bag to stop the children from eating everything all at once in the morning and being left starving at lunch. Not really a problem for us though as it turned out. Harriet ate her peach and nectarine but left the boiled egg. Then at lunch she ate one bite of her mountain bread and natural yoghurt wrap (which is normally one of her favourite foods), and two crackers. That was it. No more. She was obviously way too excited and busy to eat anything else. However on the way home in the car she devoured her little salad, some dried fruit and her little container of ravioli. Then she came home and ate a whole adult-sized homemade pizza (of which I only ate half of a same-sized one) and even needed a banana on top of that as well. So we'll be making sure we have some protein-heavy dinners on preschool nights I think!


We received two little 'paintings' which consist of four miniscule pieces of paper stuck on to a large piece of A4. Her minimalist approach to art continues unabashed. She sang a song in French (Frere Jacques) which was a hot topic of discussion on the way to the car. Her class holds two language groups - French and Japanese, so often they end up learning some of the other language through group songs and just being with the other children which is great. Harriet was also fascinted by the fact that some of the children had a sleep at preschool. Of course sleep is the great unknown with this child, some mysterious dance performed by others and which only happens TO her, definitely not WITH her. So when she got home all of her doll beds were engaged with dolls who were children sleeping. Then they all had mysterious cuts and scrapes that required immediate bandaging (we bought a First Aid kit the other day which had lots of bandages in it - one was immediately appropriated by Harry).


She asked us why she couldn't sleep at preschool and about how Melissa (her teacher) was being silly saying that the water in the toilets comes on by 'magic' (she's not one to indulge magic/fantasy issues that's for sure). Her teacher is a new graduate, which I'm thrilled about. It means she's come through with the latest research and information, is eager to impress and young enough to have the energy and enthusiasm that her job would require. Harriet loves her after one day which is always a bonus too. Another cute point I want to remember is that when I went in to sign her out from class, they are all sitting on the mat with their heads on the ground. Then they wait until they hear you calling out their name and lift their heads up to come with you. It was so sweet to see Harry all curled up like a bug on the floor, of course she was right into it.

So today was fantastic. James and I also had a wonderful day - ended up sitting with one of the other parents for over two hours having coffee (well, I had a juice thing) and realising we had lots in common (always nice). Then it was time for lunch, then off to the movies (saw The Ip Man which, if you like Chinese martial arts films is a good one to go and see at the cinema if you can) and then time for pick-up.

Someone once mentioned to me that parenthood is all about going to pick up your child from school or calling out their name in a playground and being eternally grateful that THEY are the child you're taking home and not any other child there. Today I felt like that. Harriet, you are just a wonderful person and you make me happier than I could have imagined.

Edit (by Jimbo): the second day was much the same as the first, only now Harriet wants the teacher (Melissa) to come and visit all the time. She's also pretty keen on going to pre-school five days a week! I think we might leave that one for kindergarten in a couple of years time...