When It's Right, You Feel It

The new little guy is ruling the house. We woke up this morning before 5 am when, only 90 minutes past his last feeding, Ingram decided he was hungry again. Tim couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't share that problem. I've gotten quite used to oscillating quickly between dead asleep and wide awake. It's like riding a bike.




Today wasn't about Ingram though. This day was a big one for our first born. Tim had the concern and the foresight to ask for the morning off. See, I knew it even 15 years ago that he would be a great father and husband, present in all the ways that count. By 8:00 am we were all out of bed and with the kind of nearly wordless exchange that only long-term partnership can bring, Tim and I tag-teamed to get the ourselves AND the kids ready. We were out of the house by 9:00. I even put on mascara. Hallelujah!

We went to meet Ada's first ever teacher this morning. Next Tuesday will be her first day of preschool. I picked this place back in May. Rather, they picked us. Anyone who has tried to get their kid into a "good" school in an urban area knows how competitive and difficult it can be. In some cases, applications are in before you even see two pink lines. So I was relieved when it turned out that getting Ada into preschool was the easiest part of the whole move. The universe smiled on us in this circumstance.

I haven't been back since then and that was over 3 months ago. I was a little nervous. Would I still feel confident in my decision to send her here? Would Tim think I had made a good choice? Most importantly, would Ada feel comfortable? I know she's not going to be learning her times tables or anything but this first experience and this first teacher - this is when she finds out that school is fun and learning is a life-long pursuit, one I hope she will wholly and passionately embrace. This is also when she's learning the kind of emotional intelligence that will let her function in society as an adult, a skill so valuable that I was more focused on this than anything when selecting a school.

Her teacher came out and introduced herself and Ada had a rare moment of shyness, something that almost never happens. "Uh-oh." I thought, "Ok. Ok, give her time." Next, she transitioned to what Tim likened to dropping a cat in the middle of a new room: tentative but insuppressibly curious. Surely, just as I knew my girl would, she was moving confidently all over her new classroom in no time. Picking up the giant copy of Goodnight Moon and organizing all of the little plastic animals.

Tim and I settled in on some low stools to talk with her teacher while Ada played comfortably with a class assistant. What I loved about this place the first time is the same thing I loved about it today: it's the most nurturing, patient, loving and kind environment for a child to be in. I was nearly in tears talking to her teacher and hearing what my daughter was about to experience here just as I was nearly in tears talking to the program director back in May (at that time I chalked my teariness up to pregnancy hormones). This school feels so incredibly right for my empathetic, sympathetic, social little girl. It's more than just my thoughts about this school, it's my intuition telling me we are, without a doubt, on the right track.

I was supposed to bring a picture of our family for her cubby. Since Tim was on a plane to NY within 2 days of Ingram being born we have not a single picture of us as a family of four. Today we fixed that. Oh, it's an imperfect picture: framed poorly and we're not all looking in the same direction and I still have a gut from the 10 pounds of purity and sweetness I delivered almost 6 weeks ago. Still, when I look at this picture all I see is our future and how happy we are to be here together. I see something full of potential and goodness. It's us, just as we are right now.