First Day of Preschool

Today was Harper’s big day. His very first day of preschool. It was really my big day too, but I won’t pretend that this is all about me here…even though it sort of was.

We got off to a somewhat rocky start this morning since Harper had some trouble sleeping last night. He was up at 10:30pm and 4am to pee and then wasn’t interested in getting up at 7 when I went in to get him. His school starts at 9, but it’s a good 20 minutes from here so I had to get him up early so we could be out the door on time. We headed out the door just after 8:30 and about half way there I remembered that Harper never used the bathroom before we left. Actually, he hadn’t gone since 4am and I immediately started freaking out. I asked him if he needed to go and his response was “I can wait till we get there” which translates to, “I need to go, now.” I decided to pull into Chick-Fil-A to let him run in and do his business, and thankfully we made it that far. The only problem after that was Dakota…she was highly upset that I got her out of the car then immediately put her back in. She cried and cried about it.

We made it to the school at exactly 9 and ended up in the back of the drop off line. At his school you just pull up to the curb and either a parent helper or the teacher comes to the car, has you sign your child in, and then helps your child out of the car and into the building. There isn’t any parking at his school save for about 8 spots designated for other use, so this is the solution they’ve come up with. This is the biggest reason I was panicking about him going to school too. I just did not see that whole scenario going well…

*He was unbuckled and waiting for his teacher. He looks worried, but he sure acted brave. I guess he was being brave for his worried, pathetic momma!

Lucky for me, Harper was a total trooper. We have talked and talked about exactly what was going to happen when he would go to school and I think that helped. He knew exactly what to expect, no surprises. As we were in line waiting to get to the drop off area, my heart was in my throat. I might have even been a little teary eyed as I thought about my baby going to school without me…but not Harper. He was ready. When I told him it was almost his turn he blurted out “If someone is not nice to me, I’m going to throw fruit on them!”. (We were asked to bring in a favorite fruit to help make a class fruit salad. I’m guessing this is why it was fruit he was going to throw…good thing we weren’t making a class block tower!) As his teacher walked to the car he told me he was going to say “Hi, Mrs. Hammer! I’m so glad to see you” when she got to the door. Sure enough, as the van door slid open, he said exactly that to her! That little boy is something else!

*There he goes! I can tell he’s just a touch nervous because I can see that he has his fingers in his mouth. That’s something he does when he’s nervous or excited.

So, basically, I can sum this up by saying that I, as usual, worried myself sick while my child was perfectly fine with the whole thing. I just need to give these kids more credit than I do. They are perfectly capable of being without me, and even capable of being happy while they are away from me. I love watching them grow up and turn into awesome humans, but at the same time, I want them to always need me or more importantly, want me.

When I went to pick him up, he was just as cute as I remembered him. I wanted to jump out of the van and hug him, but I didn’t. I waited my turn in the line and asked his teacher how his day went. She said he did great and that they made trees with apples on them to represent their family members. She also said that they had just played outside for a bit and that he had been selected to be the line leader for the day. When she mentioned the line leader bit, Harper gave me a look that told he’d really enjoyed that part.

At pick up time, we pull up to the drop off/pick up zone, and the teacher helps your child into their vehicle. After they are in their seat, we have to pull up to a curb, get out and go around to buckle them in. It isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it works. When I went to buckle him in, I grabbed him up and gave him the biggest hug and kiss…and he gave me a smile that showed me how much he loved me. I asked him if he had had fun and he assured me he had. He said he really liked playing with all the toys and on the playground.

I tried asking him a little more about his day, but he just kept asking me if he could watch Barney, so clearly, our moment was over, but he did say he wanted to go back, and for that, I am thankful.