This is the last photo I see every night- my chubby cheek boy when he was just 10 months old- and every night I think about how fast the time has gone by and I miss that little baby. It makes me teary-eyed on a good day, but when I saw that sweet face staring at me and then thought about sending him off to pre-school, my emotions hit me like a freight train. I mean, he might as well be heading off to college across the Country. I was seriously a hot mess and wasn't expecting that. He wasn't excited about going and I was consumed with anxiety, wondering how he would do this or that without me there or how other kids would treat him. It was just too much. I almost had myself convinced that night that I wasn't going to let him go. It's not like it's required and we would enjoy another year together, right??? But then I knew it would just be that much harder to send him off to kinder next year, so then I even entertained home schooling, which would make Travis happy, but then I doubted my teaching abilities and knew I wasn't really up for that challenge. Ugg. It was inevitable, he HAD to go to pre-school, whether either of us liked it.
Fast forward to the BIG DAY and Tyler literally woke up crying that morning, telling me that he didn't want to go to school. Travis had taken the morning off to deal with Kinley so that I could focus 100% of my attention on Tyler and Tyler kept saying that he just wanted to stay home with Travis and I and he cried for at least 10 minutes. It broke my heart, but somehow it all turned around. We surprised him with a new Iron Man toy and then he got excited to put on his new outfit and shoes (we may be in trouble because he has discovered that he loves Ralph Lauren Polo shirts $$$). He got excited about his new backpack and lunchbox and legit seemed excited about going to school. I was shocked and confused, but happy because he was happy. After a million pictures (seriously!), we were off! My stomach was turning knots for him on the way to school, but he was cool and collected and even throwing fist bumps in the air.
He walked right into pre-school with his backpack on, carrying his lunchbox, like the big boy that I have to accept he is. We put his stuff in his cubby, found his seat and gave the teacher her gift. I met several of the kids and then introduced each of them to Tyler. Once Tyler made friends, he was off and running. I hung around for a few minutes taking pictures, but he didn't notice me at all. I snuck up to him and gave him a hug and kiss and told him I'd pick him up shortly and that was that. Without a tear in his eye, he let me go and traded me in for new friends. [Totally teasing, but I did kinda feel that way for a split second]. I came back to get him five hours later and he ran up to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Can we stay a lot longer?!?" I asked him how school was and he summed it up in one word... "AWESOME!!" It's hard letting go of your babies, even if letting go is only two days a week for five hours, it's still hard! But, it's hard to not be SO excited for them when they are so excited. I think that we have found a perfect match for us in our pre-school and I can't wait to see how this year turns out for him. :-) Okay, Drama Queen out.....
Tyler's First Day of Pre-School Log:
Rise and shine- we haven't been up this early in a long time!
Getting ready for school~
The teacher gift that Tyler and I made together. Hey, I'm all for teacher appreciation (i.e., sucking up so you'll be extra nice to my baby!). ;-)
I couldn't decide which sign I wanted to use in the future, so T indulged me and held up both. ;-)
Welcome to Tyler's classroom!
His cubby~
His seat~
The kids start out the day by grabbing their name tag at the door and answering a question of the day by placing their name on their answer.
First question of the day: Are you a girl or boy?
Tyler giving the teacher his gift. Out of all these pictures, I can't believe I didn't grab a good one of him and his teacher. Bummer.
This is the "safe place." Tyler was familiar with this from the open house and started out in there. It's a place in the room where the kids can go if they are feeling scared, stressed, overwhelmed, etc. and they have some teaching tools in there to help them learn to cope. Love the concept! I'm not surprised that Tyler found himself in there before more kids showed up and he started mingling.
It didn't take long for him to warm up to the kids coming in the room!
Every kid has a "job" that changes every week.
Tyler's first job was being the caboose and he loved it!!
Everyone colored a little kid at open house and they are displayed in the room.
Pick-up time: the kids had a little treat waiting for them at their seat when they came in from the playground.
Meeting up with buddy, Trace, after school.
The perfect way to end the first day of school- a trip to the ice cream shop with buddy, Tanner.
