Today Kaitlyn turned 19 months old & started Pre-K “pre-Pre-K”! It was both hers & Melanie’s first day of school. To those of you who didn’t know, Melanie is going back to work & that Kaitlyn is attending the same school that Melanie teaches at (but a different class).

We were still very tired from the red-eye flight that we all left the house @ 7:30 this morning, a little later than we were supposed to. The trains were packed and everyone was sweating as usual. As we transferred from the N to the 6 Train at the 14th Street station, we got separated.

Mel got onto the train but Kaitlyn & I couldn’t. Some guy was just hovering by the door after he got on, so I was trying to get around him. Since he had his headphones on, he wasn’t aware that there were people behind him trying to get on. Now thinking back, I should had just rammed him with the stroller! I’ll admit that I’m a “door-hoverer,” too, because I don’t love holding onto the poles. But at least I’m a responsible “hoverer!” When the train doors open, I always move out of the way & make sure that people can get on & off easily. And I’m always willing to move in to the middle when needed. But this guy just stood there, blocking half of the doorway with his 50-inch waist, 250-lb body!

Anyway, by the time—which was just 5 seconds later—Melanie realized that we were still on the platform, she turned around, and tried to get off, the train doors closed & I had to pull the stroller back.

We eventually got there. Kaitlyn was pretty happy as she walked into the classroom and excited to see other kids. She would walked up to them and looked at what they were doing. There’s this one boy (I think his name was Toby) who came in a few minutes after her. As soon as his mom said goodbye, he just started crying & screaming. At that moment, I was like “oh, no,” because I can just see Kaitlyn doing the same thing. Some time during our vacation, Kaitlyn became very clingy & attached to us at times. She would freak out when we leave her sight or when she sees “strangers” (my family, whom she has met many times).

Fortunately, she only acted shy and asked me to pick her up once (but I didn’t). When it was time for me to say bye to her, she was OK and would let one of the teachers hold her instead. I stayed for a few minutes outside the classroom looking at her through the one-way glass on the door. Although she kept looking at the door, she was calm & didn’t cry or anything—at least for those few minutes.

Hopefully she’s OK and is having a good time right now. I guess we’ll find out later today.

We’ll keep you posted.

By the way, I’ll try to start posting up photos from our vacation by Sunday, but not until I unpack first.