another day at preschool

today was mommy's day to work or "coöp" (to use the lingo ... and the new yorker's style guide) in jack's nursery school.

it was supposed to be the teacher, mommy, and one other mother with 9 kids. 1 on 3. no problem, right?

as it turned out ... one little girl was sick. down to 8.

one girl was crying so uncontrollably the school director had to call her nanny to come be with her.

and that girl set off another girl who was crying so uncontrollably that she had to go with her mom, who was cooping in big brother's classroom. down to 7.

jack was very sweet with the girl waiting for her babysitter. he tried to give her a little hug and said, "you missin' your mama. it's okay." he also patted the head of a little boy who was crying. the class consoler ... though he too would later need consoling ...

so, we were down to 7 kids and up to 4 adults (teacher, cooping mommies, nanny). but it felt like things were still out of control and the teacher's aide also came in to help us. 5 on 7. almost manageable odds.

almost.

we played with peg boards, trains and tracks, sand table, playdough, shopping carts, cash registers, baby dolls, trucks, legos ... and that was just in the first hour!

we also painted (with fingers and at the easel), ate a snack, and enjoyed a reading of "goodnight gorilla" during circle time.

for the record, every single child in the class cried at least once. jack cried when he had to put away a truck and sit down for circle time, though he quickly recovered when he was given the privileged job of sticking a day on the calendar.

later ... outside on the playground ... the chaos continued, as our class was joined by the 3 year-olds and the parking lot turned into a tricycle autobahn.

it was a wild and crazy day and frazzled mommy had to retreat to the relative calmness of a network news organization to catch her breath.

but it was a great day at school! and we hear that it gets much easier ...

by january.

gulp.