Alice's daycare had their Thanksgiving lunch for all the parents to come and eat with the kids. This is our third year doing this with Alice. It gets a little easier every time: She is more capable of eating and she didn't cry when we left again.
It started as these things always do, with Alice clinging to us in fear as her classroom has been invaded by parents (who she sees every day, but not all at once). Then all the kids and teachers sing a few songs while Alice cowers in terror and doesn't sing a word (even though she sang the song perfectly at bedtime the night before).
Then we get to eat. It was a potluck, with all the parents contributing a dish. The food was really delicious and this was the first year we could actually enjoy the food and converse with the other parents, rather than deal with Alice being squirmy the whole time. Things are looking up.
After lunch, the teachers ushered us all outside, where we were to say goodbye to our kids while the room was cleaned up. Alice wanted us to stay, but we had talked about this for a while in advance warning her that we would have to go back to work. After a minute or two, she was ready to kiss us goodbye.
Then we went back to work, and the lunch with a bunch of 3-year-olds seemed like a bizarre dream.
