1st day of preschool

So I'm a little behind all the other cool moms that had their kids pose with a chalkboard and post it the second they walk out the door! Mom fail on my part!

Let's start with the lead up to the first day of preschool....

We've been talking up preschool for a year now. Tommy is super shy and gets nervous in new situations, so I've been trying to talk it about it for a long time and prepare him for the fact that soon, we would be leaving him at school by himself. We've made it sound like the best thing EVER, so he was VERY excited to get this postcard from his sweet teachers:

We went to enroll him the week before school started.

As you can see, he was very excited and INSISTED on taking his bookbag with him! It's half the size of his body, but he wore that thing all over that night!

We met his teachers and paid for his first month of tuition and bought a t-shirt for him to wear on field trips. He wore it alllllllll night, even though it was 2 sizes too big. So cute!

I had failed to realize he needed a physical before starting school, so in the three days after enrolling him and school starting, we managed to make it to the doctor.

 

He was not too thrilled about that but managed to have fun pretending to be "Dr. Tommy" as he called himself. We got the all clear for him, got our form signed and we were FINALLY ready for preschool!

In all honesty, I think I was more nervous then him. He's so very shy and it's almost painful for him to let loose and play with kids he doesn't know. It happens eventually, but takes quite awhile for him to warm up and have fun. He already knew one little girl that would be in his class (she's the daughter of a good friend of mine from MY school days!), so I was holding onto the hope that at least he'd have her to play with!

I woke him up that morning and he was SO excited! Tessa had stayed the night at my mom's the night before so it would just be me and him that morning. He had a bowl of cereal and talked the WHOLE time we were getting ready. We got him dressed and I walked out the door with my little man to take him to his FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. 

It seemed totally unreal. 

I was nervous and excited and upset and.....oh wait. This post is about him. Okay.......He was nervous and excited, too! He had a huge smile on his face......

.....until we walked into the school and then he got very quiet. He refused to let me take a picture by the sign and I didn't insist because I didn't want any meltdowns. We walked in and after I signed him in, his teacher took his book bag. He wouldn't look at her or say hi. My heart was so sad! He grabbed my hand and held tight and we walked around the classroom looking at toys and books and cubbies. 

Oh, his scared face....it kills me!!

There were two little boys playing trains and I asked Tommy if he wanted to play. He said, "Yes......but not with them!" He got some trains and separated himself from them just a little bit.

I tried to encourage him to play with the boys, but he wasn't having it. I kept reminding myself that I was the world's most shy child and still managed to grow up being only mildly socially awkward and to have lots of friends. So I knew he'd be okay. I watched him play trains for a bit and kissed him no less then one thousand times. And then after a little more weeping and gnashing of the teeth, I managed to tear myself away from my first born and leave him with complete strangers for 2 1/2 hours.

I made it within five feet of the car before I lost it. Like, LOST. IT. I was ugly crying while trying to drive. I kept thinking, "What if he's scared? What if nobody will play with him? What if he gets hurt? What if he has a meltdown? What if he picks his nose and wipes it on the desk? What if he wants me and I'm not there? What if he NEEDS me?" Truly, it was a solid 30 minutes of crying. I would stop crying and then somebody would call me to see how it went and it would start up again. 

Let's just say those were the LONGEST 2 1/2 hours of my life. I got to the school right at 11am and walked to the classroom door. I'm not gonna lie--seeing him standing in the circle with a SMILE on his face, playing a game with the teacher and his friends was the BEST moment. My heart was SO happy to see him so happy. He saw me and yelled, "Mama!!" and did one of those running-tackle-hugs that kids are infamous for. Oh, I died. It was awesome. 

And that was it. He loved it! He let me take more pictures........

........and then we went out for a mommy/son date. We had lunch at Applebee's. He had chicken fingers, strawberries and yogurt and chocolate milk.

Then we went to Braum's for dessert and had some delicious ice cream. We were sitting towards the back of Braum's in a booth that I thought would be nice and quiet. But it wasn't. There were a lot of people there that day and they were all talking loudly and being so distracting. I was trying to talk to Tommy about school and what all he had done, but I couldn't hear him very well. He was talking and then all of the sudden he stopped, put his hands up and said in a hushed, awed voice.... "Mommy, wait! I hear the most beautiful song!" It caught me off guard because I hadn't heard any music. But as I struggled to listen, I realized he was right. In the midst of the chaos and noise, there was a beautiful song playing in the background. 

It amazes me the things kids see that adults don't. I was SO worried about his first day of preschool and SO nervous about all the things that might or might not happen. But all Tommy heard was the song--the excitement, the adventure, the newness. And I'm so thankful for that. 

I'm so proud of you, buddy! You're such a big boy now!!