Preschool Panic: Sibling Edition

She's a maniac, maniac on the playground

Remember how I swore I wasn't going to f*ck up the whole preschool application thing with my second child?

Well, as Britney Spears so eloquently put it, "Oops, I did it again."

In my defense, I didn't think that I would have to apply to preschool for the Little Lady.  I assumed that because the Muffin Man was in school already I would just enroll her at the same place and be done with the whole thing.  However, after all of the drama with Noah's preschool enrollment, we ended up at a school where, if I were to start Rose in September, the two of them would be in the same class.

Now, I'm sure for some siblings this wouldn't be an issue, but if I were to send Rose to school with Noah every day she would steamroll the poor guy.  If you're a parent who is concerned about playground bullies, I'd like to gently suggest you steer clear of my daughter; if you even think about stealing her sand shovel, she will cut a bitch.

Rose is an amazing little person.  She's sweet and loving, but she is also incredibly determined and fearless.  If you tell her that something is too high for her to reach, she will simply find the closest chair, drag it over to where it needs to be, and hoist herself on to it.  There is no dissuading Rose if she has set her mind to something.  I often watch my daughter and wish that I were more like her, as perhaps then I wouldn't have quite so many different entries on my "Jobs at Which I Failed" resume.

I don't know if Rose is the way she is because she's a second child, or if it's just her personality.  I suspect it's a combination of the two, but so many of the traits that she possesses seem to have a lot to do with the fact that she is a younger sibling.  She is so close in age to her brother (18 months, exactly) that I wasn't able to coddle her like I did with Noah.  There were very few long, lazy days spent nestled in my bed nursing, dozing, and getting to know each other.  Rose learned to fend for herself early, since I was busy chasing after her older brother, chugging coffee, and knocking back handfuls of placenta pills.

Setting aside my Mom guilt about not spending enough time with her as a newborn, I think she's better off in some ways.  She's far better prepared to function in the cruel world than my first born who I've been holding close to the vest since conception.  Unfortunately, this doesn't alleviate the need to find my daughter a place to interact with her peers in the near future.  Since I didn't even think about applying anywhere for Rose, I've missed all the application deadlines and will be forced to either enroll her with Noah and hope she doesn't beat him to death with a sand shovel, or keep her home with me for another year.

Perhaps I should view an extra year with Rose as an opportunity to enjoy the bonding time that we didn't get to have when she was a newborn.  After all, I'm feeling much more loving towards her now that I'm not exhausted and bleeding from my lady parts.