Preschool: His Verdict

NO MORE PICTURES MOM!

I can't seem to get a decent picture of Aiden these days as I'm always aiming at a moving target in really poor lighting. He is totally over having his picture taken unless you catch him in a really good mood and then he decides it's the Aiden Show and will vogue like it's his job.

He started his second week of school today. Both days last week involved prying him off of us in tears each morning. Even though he raved about school and all the fun he had, he was still a little freaked out by the whole concept. This morning Sean and I walked him to his class where he insisted on hugging us both goodbye about 14 times before putting his backpack away by himself, taking a deep breath and charging into the classroom. This was unexpected as Sean and I were both pretty certain that it'd be a couple of weeks before drop-off would happen without tears. The teacher just stared at us, we stared at each other and then the teacher gave us a silent but very enthusiastic thumbs up. After the classroom door closed Sean and I both leaped into the air and high-fived. Yes! Score one for Aiden! GO PRESCHOOL!

Preschool seems to have opened up a whole new dimension of Aiden's personality which is just endlessly entertaining to witness. A new phrase he's adopted is "What was I saying again?". He likes to stop mid-sentence, cock his head to the side, and use that one before going on. Another is "You know." I always have to explain you him that no, I don't know, because I don't go to preschool.

He's got a buddy that he likes to play trains with. Apparently he and this other kid are both obsessed with trains and play with the train table to the exclusion of every other toy during free play.

Also, I found out tonight, he has a crush. He told me she brought a cat for show-and-tell and wore a pink shirt with sparkles and that he'd like to "hug her and kiss her and then say hi to her". We're obviously going to have to have a conversation about the order in which these things should happen and the fact that perhaps asking her to play at the macaroni table with him would be a more appropriate gesture.

He's also started singing. All.the.time. As in "Mommy, don't turn on the radio, I'm gonna sing" and he proceeds to serenade me with a song he's made up about school buses to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" all the way to the grocery store. I know they sing a lot of songs at school so that explains some of it, but I also think that a part of this comes from Sean. Neither Sean nor I can sing but Sean will make up the weirdest songs with the most complicated melodies about anything. He did it all the time when Aiden was a baby, epic ballads about whatever wandered through his mind at the time. I think maybe Aiden was paying attention.

It's so interesting to hear directly from Aiden about what goes on at school because he will give us a really monotone rundown of their activities that's occasionally punctuated with "AND THEN WE PLAYED WITH A PARACHUTE!" or "AND THEN I PAINTED WITH MARBLES!".

I'm just so appreciative that he's having a really positive experience and making new friends. I can't wait to hear about his day because suddenly he has so much to talk about and it's like meeting him for the first time.