Joshua is officially a preschooler!  Bye-bye toddler-hood—my little boy is growing up.  We’ve been talking about him going to preschool for the longest time & he’s been so excited, telling people he’s a preschooler now.  I’d ask him if he was my little toddler or a big preschooler, & he’d say “I’m a preschooler” with a very proud grin.  So I had high expectations for his first day, especially since he does well when I leave him with sitters or others.  I went inside to sign him in & drop off his stuff but when it was time for me to leave, Joshua of course wasn’t happy with that part of the plan.  I think he’d assumed I was going to be staying with him at preschool.  Plenty of tears were shed but I was brave & walked out, with the director holding & hugging him.  When I went to pick him up afterward, he was busy playing & didn’t even notice me at first.  As soon as he saw me, I got a huge hug & he wanted to show me his new toys.  Then he went & had a fit when I told him it was time to go home.  I can’t win!  The teachers said he stopped crying less than a minute after I left, which I’d suspected would happen.  Hopefully he’ll get used to the routine & things will go more smoothly tomorrow.

Joshua & I are also starting back up with some activities we did in Maryland.  I attended an FRG meeting (similar to the student spouses club at USU but this group included the servicemembers as well as the spouses).  It was nice to learn about things going on at the base but I was a little disappointed that I didn’t see any other spouses of residents, at least at this meeting.  The woman who first told me about the FRG said that there are several involved so hopefully I’ll meet them soon.  The spouses club here is for all of Ft. Lewis & didn’t seem to have many Madigan spouses which is what I’d like (not that there’s anything wrong with the non-medical spouses but I’d like others who are in my same situation of having a husband with crazy-long hours at the hospital to commiserate with).  While I went to the meeting, Joshua went to the childcare room & played.  Like he did this morning at school, he cried when I left the room but after a few minutes, he stopped & they reported he had a great time.  The next morning, we went to our first MOMS Club meeting.  It did not go well in the slightest & I hope they don’t decide we can’t join.  We just happened to be the first people there that day so I had to keep Joshua calm & quiet since it was in a church.  When people came, they were the “wrong” people with the “wrong” kids & the “wrong” toys, in Joshua’s mind.  He was really expecting it to be like our old MOMS Club meetings with the usual people & bag of toys.  So he was a little beside himself.  There weren’t a lot of toys like we were used to so that meant that the kids had to share (as you know, sharing is not Joshua’s strong suit).  When I wasn’t trying to control my wild child, I got to visit with some of the other moms & they seem very nice.  I don’t know how things will work out since now I have to coordinate playdates & activities around Joshua’s school schedule.  In the past, we could go to pretty much anything that didn’t conflict with other playdates with another group we were in but now he’s got a regular schedule 3 days a week.

On Friday night, we went to the Tacoma Rainiers game (the local minor league baseball team plays a couple of miles from our house).  The pediatrics residents had a fun get-together so that the interns & their families could meet the rest of the department.  We tailgated before the game & had a great time.  No clue who won the game since it ran long & we had to leave.  We missed the post-game fireworks but that was OK since we’re going to see some next weekend anyhow.