Twas Brillig

Flashback Friday!

About a year ago, my son Bubba, then three years old, started preschool.

Yup, the poor kid started preschool with no fanfare, no photos, no mother poking at his hair making sure it looked “just right.”

No, instead, his mother was on her way to the hospital. Again.

See, I was very pregnant and very sick. I dropped the kids (Fluffy was in the same school, just the older class) off, practically shoving them out the door, and then dropped Scooby off with my sister-in-law, Pam, and raced to the hospital where I was examined and FINALLY diagnosed with pre-eclampsia–severe enough that they wanted to induce me THAT. DAY. (You who know how very dedicated I am to homebirth/unmedicated birth will understand what a huge blow this was. Pitocin? In MY VEINS??? I don’t THINK so! And yet… there was no other choice.) So, I called Pam who agreed to pick up the kids and take care of them. She was such a lifesaver. I mean, she expected to have one of my kids for a couple of hours, and instead she ended up with ALL of my kids for a couple of days!!!

I called Brian and told him the news, so he packed up his things and headed home to meet me at the hospital, calling me as he made his way. And then I did what any other completely terrified, irrational, and psychotic pregnant woman would do.

I started bawling.

And bawling.

And bawling.

And the poor man was stuck on the phone with me.

Among the things I was bawling over was the fact that I had COMPLETELY flubbed up Bubba’s first day of preschool.

“How could I be so selfish? I’m a terrible mother! How can I be trusted to bring yet another baby into this world??? You KNOW I’ll end up ruining all their lives, because I’m too occupied with myself to take pictures of them on their first day of preschool!!!!!!”

That darling husband of mine was incredibly kind and supportive when, looking back, we both know that he was desperately trying not to bust up laughing at me.

ANYWAY! Today Bubba started a new year of preschool! And this year, I was NOT going to mess it up. So, yesterday, I took him shopping and we bought him all sorts of handsome new clothes and then we made a HUGE deal out of how he was about to start class, and today he got to take a bath all by HIMSELF (very rare, when you have two little brothers) and I took a bunch of pictures:

“This IS a smile, Mom!”

“How many more of these are you going to take?”

“Frickin’ Brackin’, Mom! Stop taking pictures and let me go to preschool already!!!”

And then, just before he walked into his classroom door today, he threw his arms around me and said, “Oh MOMMY!!!! I’m gonna miss Fuffy when I’m at preschool!”

Well, okay. I’d sorta thought that he was going to say that he was going to miss ME, but really, I think it’s incredibly darling that he’s going to miss his older sister. What a good boy.

So there you have it, folks. A happy day! And, despite his mother, I think he’s turning out just fine.