Today, she screamed.
And cried. And flailed herself around. And cried some more.
She begged me not to make her go to school again. She told me she would miss me too much and she just wanted to stay home with me all the time.
And I dragged her butt there.
Apparently, I should have paid more attention yesterday when she told me the bus went past her house and it just kept driving and driving and driving.
I think she thought she was never coming home again.
This tidbit of information came out in a fit of screaming as I was trying to get her into her booster seat in the car -- after she had missed the bus because I couldn't physically drag her out of our driveway, up the road and across the street while holding a really cute baby I didn't want to drop.
I looked into her watery eyes, wiped the globs of snot from her nose and told her gently that we love her SO much and that we would never, ever let anyone take her away. That she will always come home to us. That the reason the bus didn't stop at her house yesterday was that only Jack-Jack was home, and she knows she can't be home with just the cat. That that's why the bus took her to Linda's house then (Linda's the new sitter).
In a perfect world, that would have stopped the firestorm. She would have sniffled a little, gotten a big hug from me and crawled willingly into her seat to go.
I am not perfect, and neither is my world.
So I physically forced her into the car seat, drove the five minutes to school (during which time she climbed out of the seat belt, though she managed that trick only as we pulled into the parking lot, thank goodness). Then she screamed bloody murder and refused to get out of the car, regardless of any of my calm but firm coaxing strategies.
So then I pulled her out of the car by one arm.
I handed Noah off to the teachers outside on bus duty (bless them for taking him), and I marched Sam -- sniveling and howling the whole way -- to her room. Her teacher and the teacher's aide both told her they were so surprised to see her upset because the last thing she had said yesterday was, "I love school! I can't wait to come back."
And then I cried the whole way to Linda's to drop off Noah.
And then I bit off all my fingernails on the way to work.
No one told me the second day could be worse than the first.
Oh, girl ... I hear you. I was actually warned of Day Two and it still kicked me in the head. I"m hurting, too. My girls are 2.5 and today is their third day in day care. It has been so. very. hard. I just wanted to tell you that I am glad to read that you are going through the same heartache ... I'm tired of hearing it will get easier. My girls were up crying by 6 a.m. about not wanting to go to school.
Well Logan starts preschool on Tuesday. I am having a very hard time with it. He however is VERY excited. I'm hoping that it will be a smoothe transition. Next year we will be starting kindergarten. I have a couple more days until the drama begins...