Our little explorer

"After tomorrow, he'll change forever," said the person who's usually the least dramatic in our family, last night.

Today, was Aidan's first day at Little Explorers preschool. It was quite a nerve wracking experience.  But not, so it seems, for the little guy. 

At breakfast, you could tell Erin and I were nervous about his first day, getting him out of the house and drop-off, as we didn't stop asking him questions and talking to him - desperately trying to make the time go quicker so we could see what was going to happen.

Aidy pinches his mum's breakfast to get ready for his day at school

At the open evening, a couple of weeks ago, we were given a checklist of things we had to take on his first day.  It was more than some take on a two week cruise. 

When he left our house this morning, his backpack was full of shorts, shirts and undies; his dummy, blanket and bumblebee pillow. Then there was his sleeping bag - an alligator which eats him up before he sleeps. And lastly, there was his bag with his binder, sunscreen, insect repellent, wipes and morphine for his teachers (OK, no morphine). 

I checked all three bags threes times. Looks like Erin did too as there were a few different things in each times I checked.

We drilled him on potential questions

It was my drop off today and that's been Erin's job until now. But as the place is near my work, I get that pleasure. I'm used to Erin telling of an often clingy little boy. So to say I was wracked with nerves is kind of an understatement.

Well, at 7:30 - 15 minutes before planned - Aidan and I set about our merry way. We didn't sing nursery rhymes as I'm sure some parents make their kids do, but we listened to NPR's headlines for a bit, just in case he was asked about what was going on in the world.  And if he was, which he didn't seem to be (standards must be slipping in schools these days), he would have been able to say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going to free some US hostages, Obama was on the campaign trail and Wisconsin has sworn in their new Democrats.

After that we talked about school, looked for trucks and buses, and he counted from 6 to 11, adding twenty for a final touch.

When we got there, Aidy dragged his sleeping bag to the entrance and I dragged the other two. All was going well until we entered the classroom and there was no-one there. His hand gripped me harder than ever and I could hear his mind ticking, thinking - you're not going to leave me here are you?

The class was next door waiting for everyone to turn up.  And when they returned, so did Aidy's smile and colour in his cheeks. He played a little with the kids on the sensory table and gave his sleeping bag to Miss Julie saying, "it's an alligator."

He seemed fine.  I on the other hand, had to be guided to his locker, find out where to put his binder and almost put the sunscreen in the wrong place.  I was becoming a bit of an awkward mess at this stage.

Aidy then spied the box he'd played with last time containing trains and cars. That's when I new drop-off was going to be a success. I said bye and he didn't even notice. 

The last moment of drop off - you can't see, but we're both smiling

After that, who knows what really went on but he came up with a great report card:

He had a great day! He happily went through the day enjoying the new toys and reading stories. Very talkative and a real joy to have in class :)

At least he didn't get the old "could do better" like the old man often got.

Erin picked him up.  She got there just as the other kids were preparing to go out on the slide.  This was possibly the first time he didn't have a beaming smile for her when he saw her, "but we go outside on the side, mama," was the reply.  After a little whining he got in the car and went they home.

I put him to bed tonight and it took a few times of me returning to him for him to calm down. But on my last chat with him he told me about his new best friends, Ttttoooooeeemms, Urrssssssleee, Aaannnnnoooaaa - I'll get the correct spellings later.

His story went a bit like this:

Urrssssssleee new best friend. Fun but she cry. Miss her mummy. I say I miss mummy too. Boo hoo. Then mummy pick me up and happy.

Great bedtime story.