Our cute little coat rack is looking a bit crowded these days. And you have no idea how hard it is to find backpacks for little kids in the middle of the school year - these were on sale at Dick's Sporting Goods, thank goodness, because they were the only ones I could find and they were hanging up with the very expensive backpacking gear). Connor's bag was provided by (and required to be used for) his preschool. His little Thomas the Tank one is in the closet, used for road trips and other adventures. We opted for something more practical for the little guys, as we hope they can use them for several years (and who knows how long Thomas will be in favor).
Here are the boys actually wearing the backpacks (look how big they are on them!) - not that they left them on for very long. They were shrugging them off as I tried to quickly snap the token picture.
Waiting in line at the carpool drop off. Xander is yawning and Sawyer is dazed, which is probably not a good sign. Of course, it could have been worse, there could have been tears and screams. The rain you see out the window probably helped us out. When the staff came out to get them, they didn't have much choice but to go if they wanted out of the rain, which they did. Xander kept trying to sit down on the wet ground, so he was carried by one staff member, and then Sawyer tried the same thing, so the staff member holding Xander then took one of his hands and another staff member joined her and took Sawyer's other hand, essentially carrying him since he refused to put his feet down and be led. But they made it inside with just a few screams (they were more mad than sad, so I didn't notice any tears).
And this is my view from the parking lot, where I waited for a little while to make sure the teachers didn't need any help. I was pretty sure they wouldn't, but brought along a few things to do in the truck just in case. Xander's room is the first set of windows on the left, and Sawyer's is the next set of windows. You can see the car pool lane in the far right of the photo, and it's blurry, but a staff member is actually walking another child in under an umbrella. They walk in through a little fenced in area where the preschool playground is located.
So we all survived the first day. I left to do a few things at the house and then to go pick up Connor from his preschool. We made today a special day and went to lunch at Chic-fil-a. He didn't eat much, which shouldn't surprise me, but he did have a few french fries and drink his Coke. And he really enjoyed playing on the indoor play area. Mommy is such a sucker. She told him he would have to eat first, but when it came down to it, I was just ready for a little peace. I took my Coke to a table just outside the play area and turned him loose with the others. He'll be hungry before dinner, but that will have to be when he learns his lesson today. He's going to get his reheated lunch that he didn't eat (or nothing). We have to learn to not be wasteful, right?
After a while, Mommy got bored (next time I'll take a book or something). We still had about 30 minutes before the little guys would be finished for the day, so we decided to stop by the store to pick up something we needed. Connor likes to go shopping, even though he didn't get to ride in the race car cart (we only needed one thing, and we didn't have a whole lot of time today). He was cute, talking to anyone within shouting distance. He gets lots of smiles that way.
And finally we headed back towards the little guys school and home. Connor was fascinated by their school (it's much bigger than his, since it's located in the back of one of the local middle schools). He was also fascinated, as usual, by the directions we were taking to get there. The boy loves to know where everything is when he's driving. It's like he's trying to put the whole world in context of where he is at that precise moment. "Where's GrammyPappy's house? Where's Grandma an' Grandpa at the lake? Where's the beach? Where's Grandma Jo's? Where's store? Where's Mommy's house? Where's my school?"
We went through it while we were driving and again while we waited just a few minutes in the carpool line, and then Xander's teacher and the speech therapist walked out holding the boys by the hand. They were quite excited to hear Mommy's voice, and I got some of the best hugs ever from both of them. You know, the "thank heavens you came back for me" kind. They told me that the boys did pretty well for their first day, very little screaming and no tears, and they were looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.
I was a little worried about Sawyer on the way home. He sat back in his car seat with an extremely blank expression on his face and not making any of his usual noises. Though I knew he could simply be sleepy (he's had a few sleepless nights recently), I still wondered about that absent expression. It's one he gets when he's withdrawing from something he doesn't like or want to deal with. But, when we got home he snapped right out of it. He jumped right down from the truck into my arms, gave me the briefest of hugs, and went right inside the house. He's been happily playing ever since. I'm going to hope the car ride was just making him sleepy.
Xander seemed completely fine. He was jabbering and looking around like usual on the ride home. He jumped right down and went straight to the door to go inside the house, just like usual. He's been alternately watching a new Word World video and playing.
The only downside to our new school routine is something that Connor has already picked up on (smart little devil). When the teachers told the little guys "See you tomorrow," he instantly understood that they were going to have something he wasn't. He doesn't go back for two days, and he knows it. He wanted to know "How come babies go again tomorrow?" Mommy had to explain that their school was different, that they went every day and we would get to spend his other days (the ones he's not in school) doing fun stuff that was just for him and Mommy. That helped, but you could see he still didn't totally understand. And probably won't, at least not for a while, until he gets a chance to see how our new schedule is going to work. We're all going to have to figure that out.
All in all, the days seems to have gone well. Of course, we'll see how well it goes tomorrow now that they know what going to school means - being dropped off and left. Perhaps it will rain again!