Day +505: Preschool and a New Baby

Day +500. Didn't really think about that one until I typed it into the subject line, but it's a nice number. Day +100 was of course the big marker for being past the immediate, treatment-related issues, but we haven't really noted the subsequent century marks. We'll be celebrating the anniversaries from here on out of course, though Day +1000 might be a big one.

The biggest milestone of the past week was Mina Brigitta starting preschool! She's going three days a week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. She was pretty excited about it. Not hyped up, but just ready in a deep way. She'd been playing school for several weeks, which she probably learned from her friend Mikaela, and she'd been talking a lot about going to school. She was hilarious when we drove her to her first day. We asked her if she would be sad or lonely, and she said "No, there will be other kids there. And the teacher." We asked if she wanted us to come inside with her or just drop her off, and she said we should just drop her off, she didn't need us to come inside. In fact she volunteered that a couple of times on the way: "You can just drop me off. You don't need to come inside. There will be other kids there."

As it happened, they met at a playground on the first day, so I pushed her in the swing for a few minutes while Keri chatted with other parents. Mina was swinging next to another three-year-old named Maddy, and they were giggling at each other. When we left, Mina ran over, gave me a kiss on my leg, and then ran back and she was climbing up one of the structures side by side with Maddy as we walked away. Julie, the teacher, says she's doing great, it's as if she'd been doing it for three years. We knew she was ready, but it's so fun to see how much she's enjoying herself there. She's becoming such a big girl.

We're still waiting for a spot to open up for Isaac. There are already too many two-year-old boys at the school, and I can understand not wanting to have too many. Still, Isaac is such a gentle soul, I don't think he'd add too much to the craziness. We're hoping to get him into the school by January. He went to Kaaren's on Wednesday and Friday, and that will probably continue as that will give Keri some time to prepare her lectures.

Waah Baby has not turned up, despite several phone calls and a trip down to the restaurant in the Marina District. Mina has dealing with it pretty well. She's been saying things like "I don't know where my baby is. But she's somewhere in this house." Or "Waah Baby's not lost. We will find her!" But there have been a few moments where she's cried because she wanted her baby. The other day she was holding Isaac's Waah Baby, and Isaac wanted him back (according to Mina, Isaac's baby is a boy). Mina cried, and when I tried to give her home baby, she said "I want one like that!" pointing to Isaac's. It must have just felt right in her arms. At that point Isaac said "Here you go!" and gave his to his sister. It was a very precious moment, but the baby still belongs to Isaac.

Today Mina went to a birthday party for her friend Bliss. It was a princess-themed party for about 12 girls, and Mina looked adorable in the little pink princess outfit. She was thrilled about it herself, although she's not really sure what a princess is, not having been exposed to much Disney. Evidently Bliss was the only girl who refused to dress like a princess, which is really more princess-like than if she *had* dressed up. Keri dropped her off and went to run errands, but she heard that Mina was adorable and she had a ball. While Keri was running one of her errands, she happened to come across a brand new baby doll by the side of the road. The baby was crying for its momma, so Keri rescued it and brought it to Mina to take care of! I talked to them on the phone as they were driving home, and I could tell Mina was pretty thrilled about the whole thing. She named the baby "Tada" (pronouned, TAH-duh), which is one of the nonsense names she uses for a variety of people whose names she doesn't know, and she didn't let it out of her arms all evening. We still miss Waah Baby -- *I* still miss Waah Baby -- but it will be nice for Mina to have another baby to play with.