Another one bites the dust.

The birth of this blog marked Nate's debut in developmental kindergarten (DK), remember? Well, little sis, Tessa, has joined the ranks and started preschool (one class below DK). And, let me tell you, it couldn't have been any different. Night and day. We are chalking it up to second child status. Her second child status is the exact reason why she is already in preschool at the ripe age of 2 1/2. Now I'm getting the hairy-eyeball from all the moms that say you should stay at home with your kids and why would you send a "baby" to a public daycare center (every day of the week, no less)! You can't win.

Troy's morning drop off routine was taking him 45 minutes to an hour to get the kids in the right locations and himself to work (thank god for the flexibility of government work). In the best interest of the family, but mostly so that her dad could keep his sanity, save some gas and his job, we decided to take Tessa from the comforts of her private home daycare to public preschool. Of course we had many conversations and debates about this situation. We would have never ever even thought to do this to Nate. But, Tessa, well, the times are changing, girlfriend. This is the life of a second child. Being the awesome parents that we are, we even signed a waiver that would put her in the preschool class rather than the toddler class. There are some laws about teacher-student ratios and the younger the child the more teachers there are supposed to be in the classroom. The close financial analysis conducted by the family's CFO, Troy, revealed that we could save some cash by advancing her to the preschool class and signing this waiver. She could handle it, what's a few more kids? We convinced ourselves those older children in the classroom would be good role models for her. So, we did it and Tessa is the youngest person in her class, because we had to wait until she was exactly 30 months to even be eligible to sign the waiver (she was enrolled the day after). And, even better news was that she didn't have to potty trained! We're not doing so great with that developmental milestone right now.

Her protective older brother assured us that he would dutifully show Tessa the bench where he sat "when he was sad when he started school." We chuckled and somehow knew that Miss T would not be needing the bench spot. We labeled every piece of clothing she owns with her initials, attained all the items on the classroom list, packed her lunch and sent her sailing. And, as expected the crazy-haired munchkin ran in to the classroom and wouldn't even take off her coat before she started conversing and playing with the other kids. She also hugs everyone before she leaves at pick up. She's gonna do just fine.

We dearly miss Brooke, Papa and the dogs! We owe Brooke so much for loving, hugging, potty training (Nate), teaching and disciplining our kiddos all the while their mom and dad were at work.