So the downside to an action-packed weekend is a tired preschooler.  I did not give him enough down-time this weekend and that became painfully apparent when I tried to get him into the car this morning.  He was happy, ate breakfast, got dressed (that’s been remarkably easy lately), brushed his teeth, and then hid in the living room.  I had to physically put him in the car while he hit and kicked me and screamed that he did not want to go to school.  He settled down on the drive, but started up again when we got there.  Eve helpfully wore his backpack and walked into the school (I’m SOO lucky that they don’t usually act up together!) and I carried Lex in, hitting me the whole way.  It was horrible.  He screamed when we got to his classroom.  He was overtired, I was up half the night with Eve (on top of my few weeks of 5hr nights) and very overtired myself and we were not a pretty scene!  Eve made herself at home while I tried, unsuccessfully, to get Lex settled down.  I cried, he cried, it was awful.  I asked the teacher if I should just take him home, but she said that would just reinforce the bad behavior (of course) and she said they are perfectly ok taking a screaming kid.  Ugh!!!    Eve and I heard him screaming all the way out of the school.  I felt like a horrible, horrible person and Eve hugged me and tickled me and did everything she could to make me happy.  She’s so sweet!!  I kept reminding myself that he did have fun the first few days and that he will settle down and have fun today too.  I headed to my friends house for some powerwalking!  Half way there I got a call from the school and immediately started looking for somewhere to turn around to go pick him up.  Instead it was his teacher calling to let me know that he screamed for about 2 minutes and then decided he wanted to read some books.  She said he settled himself in front of the bookshelf and stayed there until he was ready to play.  I was super relieved!!  Obviously.  I also had a good parenting thought as I remembered how we had told the teacher that he uses books to settle himself.  I think had we not told her that, she wouldn’t have known to guide him that way and wouldn’t have known to leave him be with the books until he was ready to participate.  At pickup time he was smiling and gave me a pretty fierce bear hug.  He said he loved me very much and missed me.  He also said he wanted to go back tomorrow.  Whewh!

Carrying his backpack on the first day of school.

Lex is at preschool this morning. I’m at work. Eve is at daycare. Alan is working from home. It occured to me on the way to preschool this morning that today is the first time that I can remember that all four of us are in a different place.

We had a hurried morning today. Alan and Lex woke up at 7am, just as the clock was chiming and I was realizing that we have to be leaving in half an hour! I think we are going to need to start getting up a little earlier. Well, some of us anyway, some of us were up at 6am (and awake at 5am with a happy, bouncing toddler!) We managed to get everyone out the door, though I didn’t get the “holding a Pre-K sign on the front porch” pic that I wanted. I ran Eve into daycare and she was a little disgruntled about the hurried drop off an hour earlier than normal. No tears (that I saw) but clearly not happy either. Then back in the car and off to preschool.

We got there right on time and Lex was so excited the whole way. He said hello to the principal at the door, admiried the school bus out front, used the bathroom on the way in and made it all the way to his classroom. The he clung to Alan like a scared monkey baby. They cuddled for a few minutes and then Alan transfered hm to me. I sat on the floor with him and hugged him, then started pointing out the kids he played with yesterday and the toys. Then the (great!) teacher came over and asked if he brought his new backpack today and he happily bounced over to show her the cool things he put in his backpack (a cup, a snack, and a chanage of clothes). Life was good from there. He put on his nametag (on his back, where all stickers must go!) and waved goodbye to us. We have a silly routine at home and daycare where he likes to watch out the window and wave goodbye as we leave. He was a little concerned that he couldn’t see us out the window from his classroom, but his teacher let him stand in the doorway and watch us go down the hall. He’s so sweet!!!

I cried, just a little, but I know he’s going to have fun. I’m already looking forward to pickup :)

As I’m sure you all know by now, today was our first day AT Pre-K.  We dropped Eve off at daycare and then Alan, Lex and I went and spent an hour in his classroom.  We met the teacher and two assistants, the other parents, and his classmates.  He was THRILLED! He woke up happy and got himself ready and we got out the door with no fussing or crying.  Eve was a little confused when he said goodbye to her at daycare and she seemed a little upset when he didn’t come in with us, but she didn’t fuss much.  The whole way to school Lex was talking about excited he was and it lasted all the way until we rounded the corner in the hall and saw his classroom.  Then he stopped short and snuggled into Alan.  After a few minutes I told him that I was going to go in and find the daily schedule (in the car he had promised to show it to me).  Upon hearing that he jumped up and said, “I’ll show you mom!” and in we went.  He showed me the schedule and quickly found some big wooden trucks and was a very happy camper from there.  We learned about the activities they do, got some paperwork, and socialized for awhile.  It was really nice.  Then we took him to daycare and he cried at the door, saying he was too tired and just wanted to go home and take a nap (it was 10:30am).  His daycare teacher asked if he wanted to sit down and read some books by himself and that did the trick.  When I picked them up today he was happy and bouncing.  Seriously happy.  Overly happy!  I’m hoping that he holds on to that enthusiam for the next few weeks :)  He even went to bed happy and talking about going to school tomorrow.  Whewh!  One half day down, many full days to go!