Our First's First

He went to school today! We've been talking about it for weeks and his teachers even sent him a postcard with their picture and a note last week so that he'd feel more comfortable on the first day. He hadn't wanted to talk much about preschool until last night.

We stayed up for a half hour past bedtime talking about what his first day would be like. We lay there, side by side in his car bed, talking about snack time, his teacher's names, where the potties are and what activities they might do. He learned a new word, the one to describe that funny feeling in your tummy before you try something you've never done before: nervous.

He went to bed excited about the next day but this morning was a different story. It was pouring rain and he was groggy and cold and did not want to get dressed for school. He dragged his feet through breakfast and put up a fight at every turn but finally we made it out the door.

Sean and I were just as nervous as he was and we were trying to make sure we found the right entrance, that we arrived not too early and not too late, that we played our part in making this a smooth transition. He was nervous from the moment we stepped inside. He cried and clung to Sean's shirt before it was even time for us to leave. There are about eight children in his class and some cried while others wandered away from their parents warily but without tears. One thing we noticed is that Aiden towered over most of the kids. His birthday is four days after the cutoff for the older class (it's the same for kindergarten) so he'll likely always be older than most of the others.

He has two teachers and two helpers in his class and each of them are so unbelievably nice. They immediately swooped in to help the kids find a toy or book and get comfortable. His head teacher came over helped us disentangle ourselves from Aiden. We left feeling a little drained by how distraught he seemed but I knew (or hoped at least) that he'd be fine once we were gone.

Sean and I had been musing about everything we could accomplish while he's at school but instead we sat and had breakfast and wondered what they were doing at school.

When we went to pick him up it was a complete turnaround. He marched out of the classroom with his teacher and immediately told us about how he played trains with the other children and painted a picture of a car and sang with his teachers and can we please invite everyone over to our house to play?

In the car ride home he announced that "This morning I was just nervous. Then I played with the kids and my teachers and had fun". Well, sounds good to me.

First day, all rumpled after a morning of fun.


...and a fish face for good measure.