Instead of chronicling Lyla's pre-school saga in my Facebook status, I realized I should use the blog and open up the info to people like... oh... my mom. Hi, Mom!

The first two days of pre-school were great. We had gone to an orientation earlier and Lyla met the teachers and saw the classroom. Then when I dropped her off on the first couple days, she was a little skeptical about the process, but didn't break down crying. To explain the process, we would enter the school, go downstairs into a little out of the way lobby and wait for the teachers to come get the kids. They would take the kids up another set of stairs and into their classroom.

The third day, since Lyla seemed mostly ok and since all had gone well the first couple days, I asked Lyla for a hug and a kiss before she headed off. Big mistake! She gave me a hug, refused to let go and started wailing and screaming that she needed her Daddy to stay with her. I tried to calm her down and failed. I realized I just had to leave and took off as the teacher who was holding her hand as Lyla went boneless, started to say, "Daddy, I think you just need to leave and..." and then saw I was already half way up the stairs.

Today, the pre-school's new plan was to take the kids in through a different door, so the parents could take the kids up to the classroom instead of dropping them off at the other door. While this worked for many kids and parents, it was a total failure for us. Lyla was fine as I was leaving her at the door, then saw the other parents going up and started to get teary eyed and turned back to find me and wanted me to go upstairs to the classroom with her. Once there, she grabbed onto me again and refused to let go. Once again, I had to pry her off and make a break for it. This time, I ended up right outside her window and got to listen to her screaming. Fortunately it subsided after a couple minutes. Any bets on how much longer this will happen? I'm hoping not much more.

I do have to say, it's nice to hear her say, "I want my daddy to stay with me forever", even if she says it while crying her head off and clinging to me for dear life. I'm sure forever will be over when she's a teenager.