“Are you serious,” she says to me, the woman on the other end of the phone when I called to register Reichen for preschool last September. 

“Yes, I’m serious,” I say.

 ”Well, just so you know, we enroll for fall preschool classes in January, not September,” she curtly conveyed.  And then, as if I needed a math lesson along with the parenting one she just taught me, she adds, ”That was nine months ago.”

And then, she hangs up.

Seriously.

I started to freak after similar, although much less rude, conversations with several other preschool directors in our area who all basically say the same thing:  “You waited too long .”  And,  “We’re full.”

I was stunned.  Stunned.  I mean, who enrolls their 3 year old in preschool nine months before the school year starts?  I guess, according to my friends, everyone. 

“I thought you knew,” my friend Jenny says one day during a park play date.

“No, I didn’t know,” I say.  “How could I possibly have known?  I mean, I’ve never enrolled a kid in preschool before.”

“I don’t know,” she shrugs.  “I just thought you knew.”

After speaking with more mommy friends, I learn there’s a whole slew of stuff I need to know for school success such as:  you have to be the ‘room mom’ so you can plan ‘good’ class parties; you have to find out who the ‘best’ teacher is so you can request him or her for your child, and last but not least, you find out what’s what and who’s who and all other sorts of juicy stuff in the car line while waiting to pick up your child, so make sure you get there early.

For months, that information didn’t matter.  But now, I think it might. 

You see, after telling everyone I know about my school struggles, a woman I barely know from the gym nearly tackles me a couple weeks ago and tells me about an opening at her son’s preschool.

“I don’t know what happened,” she says.  “But there’s a spot starting in January in the 3 year old class and I know it’s going to be filled any second, so you have to call RIGHT NOW.”

So I did. 

And blah, blah, blah… 

REICHEN’S FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL IS TOMORROW!  (And by tomorrow, I mean Tuesday, just in case you’re reading this Tuesday and think I’m referring to Wednesday.)

Reichen is SO psyched! 

And Mommy is SO scared, and nervous, and proud, and psyched!

And so tomorrow, David, Latham, and I are all going to school to drop Reichen off together.  And, we’re going to take pictures.  And, we’re going to wave.  And, I bet, we’re even going to cry.

And, I also bet, we’ll be the only ones there doing that because apparently everyone else did it five months ago in September since they knew to enroll their kid for preschool in January, nine months before school even started.