Preschoolers are fun.  I knew this back from my baby-sitting and preschool teaching days, but it’s really fun to have a couple of preschoolers in the house.  Here’s my list of the Best Parts of Having “Big Kids”:

– A full night’s sleep.  This can’t be overstated – we get a full night’s sleep most nights.  Sure, there are nightmares, colds, the stomach flu and the odd night when the kids just wake up and want to play at 3 am but more nights than not J and I get uninterrupted nights of sleep.

–  Taking a quick, unplanned shower.  I can jump in a quick shower with the kids in the house without putting the kids in front of a TV show or strapping them into a bouncy seat.  Sure, unplanned things happen (like the time that I was in the shower and Clare somehow gave herself a bloody nose with her knee while “kick jumping” off the bed… what the heck?) but for the most part I find things more or less the same as I left them.

– Imaginative play and games.  There is nothing more interesting than the games that are played in our house.  Animals go on wild adventures that defy time and space (and physics… and logic).  Bears are followed to pirate ships and then go on mystical voyages past mermaids until there are birthday parties with green cake. 

– Car trips without screaming.  Yes, there is whining (my personal hell may involve a stadium full of whiny toddlers) but there is not hours of screaming.  We can drive to Bend, the coast, or up and down the freeway without screaming fits.  We may have to sing some songs, play “I Spy” or “Guess the Animal Game” and we have a repertoire of podcast stories that we pull out – but road trips are infinitely, infinitely more enjoyable. 

– Seeing our family become Team McPherson.  I try to teach the kids that we need to look out for each other, that we are a united team.  This is a hard lesson to teach and I don’t expect it to come quickly.  But there are moments when I see genuine caring, kindness and consideration either between my children or between the kids and myself.  Clare will set up two pillows for me on her bed at bedtime, because she’s notice that I like two pillows behind my head when I read her a bedtime story.  When Sammy heard the story of the first time that Clare dunked her head under water he ran over to her, grabbed her hands and said “Oh Clare!  Was it scary?” 

– The beginnings of Team Work.  They build forts together, make block towers, build tinker toy structures and elaborate dinosaur habitats.  Recently their teamwork is getting more complex.  For the last few weeks Sammy has been regaling us of tales about the Rainbow Bear on the way into school.  The Rainbow Bear is a very, very small bear who lives in a cave.  It eats Rainbow Jelly Fish, snails and slugs and occasionally chases Sammy from the front door into the car.  I asked him to draw me a picture of it, but he said “I’m not a very good drawer yet.”  Fortunately, his sister is a very good “drawer” and she was willing to draw a Rainbow Bear for Sammy. He was very specific, giving detailed directions about the order of colors, the placement of the eyes and exactly how big the Rainbow Bear is.  Clare was very patient and followed his directions well.  I loved watching them work together on a project – bringing Sammy’s vision to life.

Last week was a big, huge, major, extra-large with toppings week at the Mac house.  It was the week that we’ve all been waiting for – especially Sammy.  It’s the week that he began school at the Montessori school where Clare has been going.  He’s been asking to go to “school” for several months now.  His buddy A left nannyshare a few months ago to go to a preschool at her father’s work, his buddy G goes to school and Clare talks about school every day.  He’s enjoyed his time at nannyshare, but he’s been anxious to join the adventures of the “big kids.”

So last Monday was the day!  We spent the summer preparing him for it, starting with potty training and moving onto getting his shoes and coat on and off by himself, visiting the school periodically to get him familiar with the teachers and kids and buying a lunch box.  We’ve hung out with some of the kids at the school camp-out, playdates and when we’ve run into them in the neighborhood.  We tried not to make it such a big deal, since Sammy seems to get a little bit reticent under pressure, but we did try to prepare him for it.

On the morning of the big day, Sammy woke up in his usual quiet, snuggly, slightly cranky self.  Clare started singing to Sammy “Happy School Day to You” over breakfast and he whined “don’t sing to me Cla-are!  I want to wake up slow-ly!”  By the time we got in the car he told her that she could sing to him.  She sang, he grinned and we all made our merry way to preschool.  Sammy bounced out of the car and made his way confidently into school.  He leaned against me for just a moment during our good-bye hug.  His teacher came to the door and he looked at her and said “I’ve been waiting for you!”  Then took his teacher’s hand and walked into the classroom without a backward glance.

He came home happy, confident and exhausted.  He told stories of painting, eating lunch and playing on the playground with friends (mostly Clare’s friends, who took him under their wings in a really sweet way).  He talked about the fish and the frog and playing with trucks in the sandbox.  He talked about not napping and then crashed in an exhausted, whining heap at the end of the day.  In short – he loved it.

It was hard to leave our beloved nannyshare, our nannyshare partners and our wonderful Adam.  It’s been wonderful, a huge relief, to have it go so well.  The teacher reports that he’s fit seamlessly into the classroom.  He’s the youngest child by a few months but he just follows along the other kids with his usual easy-going nature so he’s been an easy addition. Clare adores having Sam at school with her.  She has complained a bit that “the other kids want to play with him!  So I don’t get a chance to!”  I couldn’t be happier that this is the biggest complaint.

Welcome to the world of Big Kids, my sweet boy!