Voted Most Likely to Succeed

Second children really get the shaft. I mean, the week before last, it was “All Zan, All the Time,” in recognition of his first day of kindergarten.

And Jayna’s first day of preschool? Well, that was yesterday … and, while it was definitely an exciting and monumental occasion, it was not unprecedented; she was going off to the same preschool that Zan had attended the previous two school years, and we—and she—already knew the teachers, already knew the building, and already knew the drop-off and pick-up routine, so there really wasn’t the same sense of releasing her into the wild that came with Zan’s first day.

As we were driving to the school, Wonder Woman asked Zan if, as an alumni, he had any advice for his sister.

“Yes. Jayna, if you cry and scream when Mommy leaves you at the door, the teachers will have to pull you in, so you don’t want to do that,” he said as happily as if he was telling her that a litter of cute little puppies with candy dangling from their collars would be waiting to greet her.

This, of course, speaks to the other reason things are less harrowing with Jayna: she is, quite simply, lower maintenance than her big brother. Sending her off for her first day of preschool didn’t bring with it the same fear of the universe imploding that came with leaving Zan there for the first time.

She was a little shy when she first arrived at the school, but once she saw some of the other kids playing with toys, she dropped her backpack and dove right in. And, as shown in the picture above, she came out looking like she was Queen for a Day.

Still, while the preschool routine was familiar, leaving our baby girl at school, on her own, without us hovering nearby to make sure the forces of evil couldn’t get within 50 feet of her, was a very new experience. Both of our kids are officially in school now, and that is an odd sensation indeed.