June got into the Purple School off the waiting list only nine days after we heard she didn’t get in. Beth came into the bathroom Friday evening while I was undressing for a shower and let me know she’d just read the news in her email.

We stood there just looking at each other for a moment, waiting for the other to speak. I’d known this was a possibility but I expected if it happened at all it would be months from now. Noah also got in off the waiting list, but in June. I’d pretty much forgotten he was even on a waiting list.

“I think we should do it,” I said cautiously. “I’m still bruised, and I’m going to be self-conscious as hell about my co-oping but I think we should do it.”

Beth agreed and said she was going to ask for an opportunity to find out exactly what the concerns about our co-oping with two-year-olds were, so we could have a chance to address them. So pending that discussion, we think we will probably enroll her.

It changes so much, knowing June will have a fun, nurturing, affordable, high-quality preschool to attend for the next three years and that we will not have to go through the stressful, crazy-making preschool admissions process that’s standard for middle and upper class parents in our area. I had started to research other schools for her 3s year and I was a bit shocked at how much non-co-operative preschools cost. All and all, I was dreading the whole admissions scramble. It still stings a bit, knowing we didn’t make the first cut at our first-choice school, especially since we know people on the admissions committee, but I can get over that.

We took the kids to the Easter egg hunt sponsored by the Takoma Park recreation department this morning. The first time we took Noah to this egg hunt I was really surprised to find the eggs were not hidden. They are just laid out on a field that’s marked off into separate areas for different age groups. When the whistle blows, the kids rush in and grab all the trinket-filled plastic eggs they can. The hunt in the two-and-under area is pretty relaxed, with toddlers ambling around and carefully picking up eggs. June ended up with five eggs to the several dozen her brother scavenged from the more rough-and-tumble five- and six-year-olds area.

It just goes to show that sometimes you have to hustle for the egg and sometimes you only need to bend down and pick it up.