First-Timer

Nothing says “First Time Preschool Mom” like:

1) Choosing the 11:40 a.m. “Meet the Teacher” slot (one of the last in the day, leaving only the least desirable parent volunteer sign-up options remaining), and therefore signing up to make play dough for the entire class for the first day of school.

2) Losing the play dough recipe in the mountain of essential forms and paperwork that I was given, and humbly e-mailing the teacher to ask her to send it to me again (and there went my dream of making a good first impression as an organized, put-together mom).

3) Asking Daddy to make an emergency run to the store tonight to buy play dough ingredients, including red Kool-Aid packets and Cream of Tartar (because who really has 8 tablespoons of that stuff lying around?).

4) Realizing that the recipe called for 4 cups of salt, not teaspoons, and thus emptying every salt shaker in the house to gather the necessary amount required to make the play dough (since I couldn't ask Mark to go to the store yet again for this project).

5) Making the play dough at the 9:00 tonight, and ending up with a mammoth bowl of red goop, which was full of tiny white powdery specks and practically required a cement mixer to stir.

6) Deciding that Mommy and Daddy kneading the play dough by hand for 15 minutes would surely help dissolve these balls (which it didn’t), and discovering that our hands are now stained bright red from the Kool-aid as it dissolved in the warm mess.

7) Swallowing my pride and accepting that I will have to start all over again tomorrow, where I will remember to mix all of the dry ingredients together before adding the boiling water.

8) Wondering if wearing gloves to hide my red-stained hands when I drop off Luke for his first day on Wednesday will draw more or less attention to what will henceforth be known as "The Play Dough Incident".

9) Hoping that Luke’s preschool teachers will accept that I’m a first-timer, and don’t have high hopes for the Christmas party this year (which surprisingly was also left on that volunteer sheet, and will also be run by yours truly).