Caleb's First Day

Wednesday (9-7-11) was Caleb's very first day of preschool. We had a LOT of mixed emotions - not just on that day, but for the several weeks leading up to it. Caleb had been pretty insistent that he did NOT want to go to school "at all." In fact, he told Dan and I one day that he would leave school and walk home, or drive a car if he could find one.

Soooo, I knew it might be a tough transition. But, in the last couple of weeks, it seemed like he was warming up to the idea. And then his teacher came to visit last week and it went really well. He was excited to see her and pretty chatty when she was here. I was starting to feel better and excited for him.

Then came Wednesday. As soon as we mentioned it was time to get dressed for school, the waterworks began and continued. He was super sad, and kept saying...err...wailing, "I don't want to go to school. School is LAME!" "I hate school! School is so lame!." Yeah. What to do, what to do.......Dan came up with a brilliant idea. He took a quarter, used a Sharpie to write an "M" on one side and a "D" on the other and explained that he could hold it in his hand or pocket and be reminded that mommy and daddy would be there to pick him up soon. That helped a little bit, and he calmed down on the way to drop Gabe off.


Then came my breakdown moment. We stopped at a Dunkins (in our bribery to calm him, we promised a sprinkle donut on the way...desparate times), but then drove by another one on the way to his school. It was one that Caleb and I used to go to every Friday morning after dropping Gabe at preschool. I looked at it and said, "oh, there's the Dunkin's Cay and I used to go to all the time." And then proceeded to burst into tears. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. I think it was the combination of understanding how quickly time is passing, the realization that I won't have those Fridays with the boys anymore (at least for a while) and the fact that my littlest is now in preschool.


Thankfully, while I was having my moment, Caleb had calmed down. He even seemed like he was getting excited as we pulled up and walked in.



There was no shortage of fun things to see when we got there - his teacher pulled out all the stops for the first day: water table, play dough out and ready, paints and easels, caterpillars, gerbils...it was super cute, and there are only 6 kids in his class. He hung up his bag and took to the water table right away and was feeling pretty comfortable.



We decided to say goodbye and he got a little hesitant, but we kept walking....only to have him run out the door and down the hall after us. Sadness. His teacher came out and was chatting with him, trying to warm him up a bit, but finally just picked him up and took him inside. It was sad, he gave us that sad, "don't leave me" look, but didn't actually cry. I, on the other hand, did.

 In the end, it turns out he really loved it! He told us all about his morning and the gerbils - Digger and Jumper (his job that day was to feed them). I was so relieved! Then came this morning....ha! A few more tears getting dressed, but another good morning overall. It's so crazy that both the boys are in school now - CRAZY. But, here's to a new chapter!