We picked a preschool for Lauren. It is, indeed, the snooty-sounding one, but was not at all snooty. They really seem to have their act together, far more than the others we looked at. The chain itself is not new, but this facility is, so the building and all the equipment is only a few months old -- so clean! The directors and teachers seem very nice and dedicated to the kids. In Lauren's room there are only 5 kids now, with space for a maximum of 12, in a nice, big room. (At another center we looked at, they had 17 toddlers in a room that looked too small for half that many kids. There was nowhere to walk, let alone run around and play.) I think what sold me on the place was the tiny toilets -- each classroom has its own bathroom and the toddler room has a real, honest-to-goodness, porcelain, toddler-sized flush toilet. How cool is that?

Anyway, I now have a pile of paperwork to fill out and I need to talk Lauren's doctor into writing a note saying she has to have organic milk. I don't obsess about giving her an all-organic diet, but I am a freak about the organic dairy products. The connection between growth hormones given to cows to make them produce more milk and early-onset puberty in girls (not to mention the antibiotics issue) means that I'm not giving Lauren non-organic milk if I can help it. But I digress.

I'm so excited for Lauren to go to a wonderful school a couple of days a week where she'll learn so much and make new friends. (Maybe I'll make some, too. I could use more working-mom friends. People who "get it.") I know the transition will be tough for her, though. I already warned the assistant director that she's not going to be one of those kids who cries for 5 minutes and then stops when she gets wrapped up in an activity -- she's going to be the 2-hour sobber, I fear. Better now than in kindergarten, though, right?