First Day Of School!

Look at our big, big boy! You know, three years ago today (well, three years ago on the Tuesday after Labor Day) I was nervously preparing for my first day back to work after a 12-week maternity leave with my first baby. I woke up extra early (after two night wakings from my nursing baby), left enough time to play and cuddle with him, and then dropped him off to the sitter. There was another family dropping off at the same time, so I just set him down in his infant car seat and said goodbye. I thought I'd be able to keep my cool, but I bawled on my entire drive to work that morning. I was so sad to leave him in a totally new environment. My baby. My sweet boy. I was going to be separated from him for 11 1/2 hours for the first time ever (7:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.). And I'd have to do that four days per week! I didn't know how either of us would survive. :)

***************

As an aside, do you ever think about significant dates in your life and how they might have also been significant in a previous year too? I'm not sure that made sense, but sort of like a "Today In History" segment in the newspaper. I think it would be so cool if somehow we could get a glimpse of what we looked like and what was happening in our day for any given year in the past. Here's another example, also involving Will, that I recently discovered:

June 8, 1997:

the date that Craig & I first said I love you...

Exactly 10 years (to the day) later, June 8, 2007:

our first child was born!

I didn't know that date by memory. I just happened to pull out some of my old diaries from junior high and high school recently and read through some of them. Of course, it's irrelevant information, but I thought that was neat. Our first kiss (April 11, 1997) and the date he asked me to be his girlfriend (April 15, 1997) also happens to be pretty close to Sophie's birthday (April 20th). Oh, and the day of our homecoming football game my senior year of high school when I was voted homecoming queen, was October 2, 1998... exactly six years before our wedding day in 2004. :) Another one I never realized until I looked it up.
****************

Okay, moving on.

Of course, we did survive that transition to in-home daycare and full time work and are very comfortable with it now. But it was hard to see that silver lining back then.

This time, I was not at all apprehensive about dropping him off to preschool. He'd been there before, he isn't a fearful child and my mom is one of his teachers! So apprehension isn't the word. But I did feel left with a sadness of "How did you get so big, so soon?"

Here are some more scenes from the morning before the first day of school.

I was disappointed with this picture because of course I was hoping to get a sibling shot to compare for the future. But Sophie just did not want to stand still. (I had to distract her with my lens cap and Will's pretend "driver's license", which he insisted on taking with him to school. Apparently, he thought he'd need to show some ID.) And then they were standing partly in the shadow of the house, so the lighting isn't good. Oh well. I may try again on Thursday morning.

Arriving at school. (And another shadow across his face. He was getting sick of my pictures.)

But I like these...

"Mrs. Skees" and Will

Mrs. Skees & Mrs. Cuthbertson

He made a bee-line for the "construction vehicle" toys. Yep, those were his words.

Their theme this fall is bubbles.

More views of the classroom.

This is where they do calendar and music time as well as just any seated circle time.

Craft and snack area.

The school is in the divided Sunday school rooms of a church so this is a long view, but there are lots more sections of the rooms that I didn't photograph.

I packed him a small lunch to eat at the end of the school day. (There was more in the lunch bag than just trail mix, but I forgot to take a picture in the morning.)
It's so convenient and helpful for us that my mom will be driving him to and from school and our sitter's house. We'll drop both kids off at the sitters on Tuesday & Thursday and mom will pick Will up on the way to school and bring him back after. The school day goes from 9-12 and so he'll eat a packed lunch in the classroom while mom is seeing all the kids off and cleaning up at the end of the day. Then he'll go back to the sitter's for nap.

My mom has been teaching preschool since before I was born.

Now she has her own school and I'm so excited for both our kids to go there before kindergarten. She's going to retire after Sophie and the twins are through!

Will met some new friends and had a good first day of school. His only behavioral issue that day was that he kept taking his shoes off in the classroom. ;) So we've talked about that and he's prepared to do better on Thursday - LOL.

I was grateful to be able to take him in to his first day of school. I have to say: it definitely makes me a little remorseful and sad that I'm not a stay at home mom at times like this. I would love to be able to take him every morning and see him right after. I would love to talk to him about his day while it's still fresh on his mind and be able to volunteer and be part of more of his classroom activities. But I appreciate the set-up we have and I will just make every effort to attend whatever school parties and events I can. My first parent helper day is not far off: October 15th and we're going on a field trip to the pumpkin farm!

So it's official! Our school year has begun!