School Days

"Bye, Mommy!"

This is what my barely two year old----who used to have horrible separation anxiety---said to me as we pulled into the parking lot of his preschool this morning. Yes, Isaac started school today. The whole preschool debate was quite the dilemma for me. Questions of do I send him yet, where do I send him, and am I going to be forced to buy a tacky backpack for him to cart to and fro swirled in my head.

We found the perfect preschool for his personality: small and ends at noon before lunch and nap. Then we were wait listed (I told someone this recently who got a big laugh over a wait list for preschool). Finally we got in, which meant I had to follow through with my preschool plan.

This morning we packed up the tacky backpack (The one I immediately purchased upon receiving the "acceptance call" and which happens to make Isaac incredibly happy) and set off for preschool. Last night I was haunted with thoughts of Isaac crying for three hours straight, feelings of guilt for making him go to school at the age of 2 when he has many years of required schooling left before him, and images of all the other kids being much older and wiser in the ways of the world than my barely two year old son (He made the cut off by 28 days).

All those feelings subsided when we pulled into the parking lot and Isaac said, "Bye, Mommy." He walked down the hall with a new friend (after introducing himself by saying, "I, I-ick") and went straight into the classroom. A quick greeting to his teacher ("Hi, Ms. Cassie") and he set off to investigate the stash of toys. No tears, no hugs good-bye....I am not even sure if he realized that I followed him into the building from the parking lot.

I drove home clutching my cell phone, knowing that at any minute the director would call to say Isaac was incredibly distraught and I needed to pick him up. Nope. At pick-up time, I expected him to come out of his class relieved to see my face. He calmly said, "Hi, Mommy."

Day one was a success. His teacher said Isaac did super and only shed some tears one time, simply because someone else was crying. On the way home, I attempted to get some information out of him as to how the morning went. Basically all I got about the day was that Ike the dog was a good boy (he got to take a favorite animal for his first day) and that cookies were served at snack time and "I-Ick's cookies were all gone." During lunch, he looked over at me and said, "Mommy find I-ick." I guess he thought I had lost him for a few hours while he was at school. Silly boy.

Being true to his two-year old nature, picture taking on this first day of school was not an acceptable option.

After school, still refusing to get his picture taken

This little girl was thrilled that Isaac attended preschool today...because it gave her full reign of the house. (FYI, she turned four months old yesterday!)

**By the way, it was a year ago today that we found out we were expecting this brown haired, blue eyed bundle of smiles. It was then that my irrational nacho and candy bar cravings made sense....