By Fiona | One day in the summertime, Mama and Daddy started talking to me about school. They said I would be going to a place with some other kids, and I would get to play and sing and take a nap there, and then at the end of the day I would come home again. It sounded kind of cool.

Before I could go, though, Mama said I would have to learn to use the potty. So we spent a few days hanging around on the floor in the Stube reading books and practicing keeping my underwear dry. It wasn’t so tough, really, and I got to eat a graham cracker every time I used the potty, so I couldn’t complain. After a few weeks Mama and Daddy seemed to have conveniently forgotten about the crackers and stickers that they used to give me, and now I sometimes just feel like going to the bathroom is a huge inconvenience. They’re always interrupting my playing and telling me to go use the potty. What a pain!

But the good news, of course, is that I could go to school once I knew how to wear underwear. The first day was pretty great. Mama and Daddy woke me up and got me dressed, then put me in my stroller for the ride to school. Once we got there, I went straight to playing with the pretend kitchen and I didn’t even notice when Mama and Daddy left. When the other kids got there, we had breakfast and played and read books and took a nap, just like Mama and Daddy said. Then Daddy came to pick me up.

The second day was a little tougher. I was tired from the day before, so it was harder to be in a good mood, especially with all those kids I didn’t know, and all those rules that they have at school about when to sit down, when to play, when to sleep, and not fighting over toys. I wanted to go home, but I couldn’t go by myself. When Mama finally came to get me, I was ready for her to carry me home. I just wanted to rest my head on her shoulder. We went home for a little while and then I went over to my friends’ house for a while so Mama and Daddy could go see a movie.

There were a few weeks in between those first two days and the first “real” day of school, as Mama called it. I was kind of sad whenever Mama and Daddy left me alone, like in Nursery at church, because I never knew how long it was going to be, and that second day at school had been kind of overwhelming. When I went back to school, it was okay until the very end of the day. We were sitting at the door with our shoes and backpacks on, and then some other kid’s mom walked in to pick him up. Then they left, and another kid’s mom came in. I was so worried because I couldn’t find my Mama, and I didn’t know if she would remember to come get me.

Fortunately, Mama came in just a minute or two later and said she had heard me crying outside. On the way home, I told her how nervous I had been, and she told me that either she or Daddy would always be there to pick me up after school. That was a relief, but it was still hard to get used to.

It took me a few weeks to settle in, and now I love going to school. I’ve made some friends there, like Zuma and Gregory. We have music classes, we do art, we go to the playground, and we even ride in a school bus sometimes to go on field trips. I’m glad to go every day, but I’m also glad when Mama comes to pick me up and take me home to see Daddy.