Instant Mom by Nia Vardalos

Author:Nia Vardalos
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Adoption & Fostering, Humor, Marriage & Family, Topic, Family & Relationships, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780062231833
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2013-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

• 15 •

The Kids Are All Right

It’s been an emotional week for us. Just getting to take Ilaria to buy her first Hello Kitty lunchbox is a thing I never thought I’d get to do. So I bought two. Okay, four. I used to avert my eyes from the kids’ department at stores. Now that she’s not taking off anymore at stores, I cannot stop buying her little clothes. I cradle her mini-sneakers and wonder, will I ever get used to this parent thing? I hope not.

Ilaria starts today at a little preschool called the Sunshine Shack. None of the kids can pronounce the name.

There aren’t many preschools we could have gotten into and we had trouble finding one with better security than Do Not Cross police tape separating it from the liquor store. In Los Angeles, the exemplary preschools have waiting lists and a kid’s name is put on at birth. Since we didn’t have that benefit, we couldn’t get into a good preschool. We tried everywhere to no avail, and were panicked Ilaria would be missing out on vital aspects of socialization. When we’d just been advised to make a hefty donation to a sought-after preschool plus buy the owner a fancy gift (yep, really), we heard about one spot being open at the Sunshine Shack. This is the only pre-school we could get into.

On the drive over, I’d sung and clapped out a little song with Ilaria: “No hitting, no biting, no scratching, no fighting.” We still try to make everything a light-hearted game. She’s doing so well, but because she can still play a bit roughly, I worry about what’s allowable behavior at this age. I wonder if it’s normal to worry your kid will get expelled from preschool and become a social pariah.

We walk in.

We’re warmly greeted by Sara, the owner of the school and also Ilaria’s teacher. She is very pregnant. Ilaria stops to touch Sara’s round tummy and now asks her if she is going to keep her “baby or give it to someone who needs it.” I shoot a weak smile at Sara and pretend to get fascinated by some paintbrushes.

All the parents are looking around the adorable little playroom and there’s a scream—two little girls engage in a knockdown fight. Phew, it’s not my kid. Ian and I raise an eyebrow at each other, relieved Ilaria hasn’t punched anyone. Yet. It’s not that we don’t trust her; it’s just that we’re still working through some issues. When we applied to the school, we did not tell them we’ve only known our daughter for a few months. Yes, Ilaria did hit, like toddlers who are not adopted. But it’s so infrequent now, we don’t want to mention to her new preschool that she has a mean right hook.

To be honest, we like how tough she is. We like how she takes care of herself. About a month ago, we were at a public playground. As Ilaria was about to go down the slide, we saw a big rough boy about eight years old, climbing the wrong way up the slide.

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