PRESCHOOL!!!

Grayson started preschool last week! It was a very exciting day! And I cried a lot.

Let me back up. I had started Grayson and Easton on a new bedtime schedule with an earlier bedtime in order for them (Grayson mostly) to get the rest I knew he would need for school. We started it about a week out, and it was going pretty smoothly. But the night before his first day, Grayson was up in the middle night, jumping on his bed and screaming happily - not an unusual occurrence in our household. He has a lot of extra energy he needs to get out! Anyway, he did not sleep well and I did not sleep well.

When I woke him up, he was laying on his floor. When he sat up, he had blood on his face. Evidently he had bit his lip sometime throughout the night. His hair was...well...it was something else. Despite meticulously combing his hair like one of those moms the night before, my efforts were futile. Especially considering I trimmed his hair the night before during his bath because it was OUT OF CONTROL.

I wish I was joking.

He looked like this:

I tried to get a picture of his outfit. This was the best I could get.

So cute though, right?

Obligatory First Day of School Pictures

When we got to school, he was FURIOUS that we weren't going into the EI room for play group. I had to drop the bags I was carrying (a bag of snacks, a bag of school supplies and his bookbag) on the floor while one of teachers grabbed all of that and carried it into the room. I then proceeded to DRAG my oldest son through the door while he fought me tooth and nail. Until he saw people he recognized in the room. He stopped for a moment to do a little flirting, and then he explored the room. I tried to make my escape, but he flipped out. I slid through the door to go outside, listening to him scream as I pretty much made a run for it to my car.

I held it together until I got home where then I completely broke down. I would have been okay if he had been happy. A bittersweet moment? Yes. But worthy of all those tears? No. I bawled and bawled while Easton watched me with an amused look on his face, and Mike sat next to me with his arm around me.

I was a hot mess.

Thankfully I had scheduled a coffee date with a friend that morning, and she cheered me up considerably. I knew I could get through the day then, and I did. We haven't had tears any of the other days I have dropped him off. It has been a great experience, and he is in such awesome hands. Like truly wonderful people working with him.

When I went to pick him up the other day, I felt a little sad because as the rest of his class did table work, my son was wandering around the room, studying the curtains hanging over the windows. His aide was with him, talking softly to him and pointing things out to him. (She's a saint, I tell ya.) When he saw me, he ran over to me and gave me a big hug and a few kisses. When I thought about it later, it made me extremely sad he wasn't participating with his fellow students.

His teacher sent me this adorable picture of him :)

But then I talked to my good friend Stevie about it - she is a preschool intervention specialist and she runs a preschool program for a school district in another city. She has been AMAZING - such a great resource and sounding board for me - and not only that but we have been friends for something like 20 years. Truly a blessing. (Also a saint.) She gave me a new perspective about what I saw, and she said it was really a great thing that the teachers and his aide were responding to him in a way that worked with him. I hadn't thought about it that way and I instantly felt better.

While it might have been my heart's desire to keep him home with me and do some homeschool preschool, I know that is not in his best interest. He needs to be in a setting that can work specifically to help him in the areas he struggles with it.

So this whole preschool thing? It's pretty awesome. I feel like he has already changed in just a few little ways since he started last week. :)

BONUS: He gets to go swimming with his class twice a month!