I’ve been thinking about this day ever since I filled out the paper work in February. And in a sort of , catch-22 moment of wanting him to grow -up, make new friends, experience how fun “school” is, to develop socially, and to learn new skills, that will better him for the road of life ahead. But then, there are other times when I question myself if I’m doing the right thing. My innocent little soft -spoken, sensitive boy, who isn’t even 3 yet.
We visited the Pre-school back in May, because I knew he is a bit shy/ apprehensive of new people and environments. We took pictures, and talked about them well, for 3.5 months now. ( If I never have to look at those pictures again, I’ll be very happy 😉
We talked about it at breakfast time, and one time he even told us ” But I don’t want to go to Pre-school!” Steve said, ” how come Levi?” ” Well, because I’m too little! ” and I thought, oh no, what have we done!?
So this morning, we set our alarm for the first time in 2 months, got up before the kids, made sure everything was ready. Levi woke -up on his own, things were going better than planned. No crying, no fussing….
Until we went to leave. He said he wanted to ” golf” and started stalling, when I went to take his “first day of..” picture, he was fully melting down. My Mama always took a picture of us on our first day of school and darnit anyways, I was gonna get that picture no matter if it was: good, bad or just plain ugly.. I think it was a combination of all those things…
So we got there, I anticipated his Sunday school meltdown.. x2…
But nothing, zero, nada! No tears , no clutching our legs, being shy, hiding his face. He walked right up to ” Miss Toni” like he had known her his whole life, gave her a hug, said hi to the kid beside him, started making “pancakes” with playdoh, and we walked out the door….
I was relieved at first, and then I had that catch -22 feeling again when I realized, he didn’t need me. ( I told myself it was all the picture, and prep talk….yes, that was why for sure … 😉
We had no idea what to do because we had anticipated we were gonna have to stay.
So we went to a park down the street, and spent some one one one time with Dee-dee.
When we went to pick him up he gave us a wave, smiled, and was pretty darn proud of himself –
And we knew we had done the right thing
We celebrated by going out for breakfast. He ordered Mickey mouse pancakes and chocolate milk.
When we got home we took ” happy” first day of pre-school pictures
Looking forward to seeing how much he learns, and to many more happy pre-school days…