don't leave me this way

Today was the first day of the rest of K's life.

In other words, she started pre-school today, and that was a bit traumatic for everyone. The official routine is that we drive up with K in the right-hand car seat and a sign with her name on it on the dashboard and someone from the school opens the door and helps her out. Parents remain in the car and the transition is short and sweet and not made any more elaborate or difficult than necessary. It didn't quite go that way though.

We pulled up. M was driving. I turned around and unbuckled K and unlocked her door. The official school person opened the door.

K: "Close door! Close the door!"
L : "why K cwyin'?"
K: "Close door! Close door!" (curling in on herself in the car seat)
L : "why K cwyin'?"
me: getting out of car and going to gently pull K out and carry her inside and to the playground where, thankfully, we saw our neighbor and her little boy and she asked K to pose for a picture and I gave K a kiss and faded into the morning.
L : "why K cwyin'?"
L : "whoa (where) is K?" ( ... or maybe this time she really meant "woe is K?")

My guess is that K will hold it together (more or less) until M goes to pick her up at noon, at which point the afternoon may be a long and difficult one.

I will say that we passed a lot of kids waiting with parents on the sidewalks as we drove to her school, and I looked at all of them (kids and parents) with new eyes. Funny how actually facing something ourselves makes us more understanding/empathetic about the situation.