Trinity started play-school last week. She's only 2 years and 3 months old, but she seems really ready to be around other kids, learn to share, and spend some time away from home. I feel nervous, guilty, excited, and sad about the whole thing, so she's only enrolled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday for this first month, 3 hours a day, and next month we'll bump it up to Monday through Friday.

There are many plus sides to sending her to play-school. Her friend Ginger is enrolled in the same class. Trinity definitely wants to play with other kids. Denis, the babysitter, is now also the housekeeper, so if Trinity is in school, Denis will have some time to clean house, at which it turns out she excels. In fact, Denis is a better housecleaner than babysitter. It's also good to have Trinity out of the house so I can have some quiet time to do some work. In spite of Denis being here baby-sitting Trinity, I was unable to get much work done, because I would either get interrupted by Trin or Denise, or I would walk into whatever drama was happening and get distracted and pulled in.

It's really weird to have Trinity out of the house for 3 hours. The house is suddenly empty. Quiet. Peaceful. Depressing. Obviously, I'm experiencing a number of different emotions.

How is Trinity faring? Last Monday, I attended the whole 3 hours with Trinity. It was more because I wanted to observe the teachers than be with Trinity. When we enrolled Trinity, the two teachers/babysitters in Trinity's class were on the diaper changing train - there's quite a few smaller children in Trin's class, and I thought they didn't appear particularly happy. Generally people go gaga over Trinity, especially here in Mexico where her bright blue eyes and white blond hair are unusual. These ladies didn't crack even a hint of a smile. So I wanted to sit in to make sure Trinity was going to be in a good situation. I think my first experience was just a bad day for the teachers, because the day I sat in the teachers were chipper, smiling, playing with the kids, and all seemed rather well to me.

On her first day, Trinity had her ups and downs.

When I snuck out so I could observe her without her seeing me, she almost immediately noticed my absence and lost it. I came back in and sat in the corner. Later, someone accidentally stepped on her toe, and she cried. Then she was playing on the baby climbing frame, and given that she's nearly 30 pounds (over 13 kilos) she managed to pull the whole thing down on top of her and slam her head into the wall. There were lots of tears her first day. But overall, she seemed to have fun, and was quickly bossing everyone around. (She is quickly growing into the nickname "Bossy Boots")

On Wednesday, she was to be on her own. We discussed it extensively, that I'd walk with her to play-school, she would play with Ginger, I would go home and work, and I'd pick her up at 1:00. After I gave her a kiss goodbye, she launched herself and climbed up my body and clung on like there was no tomorrow. The teacher and I had to peel her legs and arms away from me so I could get out. As I walked away, I heard her screaming and crying, and I saw her shoe fall off, which usually upsets her on the best of days. I can still hear the echos of the cries right now. I walked out of the school, and started crying myself. I had to call Andy on my walk home, because it's embarrassing to be crying while walking around if you don't at least appear to be having a conversation with someone. Then I got home, called Sabrina (Ginger's mom) and cried some more. It was a rough day. I kept wanting to call the school and see how Trinity was doing, but I knew that if she was still crying, it would only make me more upset, and it would be a bad idea for me to go back. Trinity needed to learn to be in school.

I was 8 minutes early to pick her up that afternoon. I walked in to find that Trinity was happy as a clam, had lots of fun, and didn't want to leave. The teachers all said that she cried for less than 10 minutes, and then sat with Ginger while they both ate their peanut butter sandwiches. She cried less than 10 minutes! I cried longer than that! I couldn't believe it! But I was so happy to hear that she had so much fun, and that she liked playing with the other kids. She even let one of the teachers do her hair.

When I dropped her off at play-school on Friday, Trinity ran into her classroom and immediately started playing. This is old hat to her. No problem. It also happened to be Día de La Revolución in Mexico, so there was a party and dancing and she came home with a festive apron filled with sweets. She might be under the impression that she'll always get to have a party and dance and eat treats at school, and that could be why she's so happy to be there, but at least she's happy, and at least I've finally stopped crying!