Overall I'd Say It Was a Success

We didn't have the best circumstances going for us this morning. First of all, on Sunday The Boy told me that his throat hurt three different times. Of course it does, I thought to myself. And then when he woke up this morning he sounded a little congested. I asked him if he felt okay and he said he did. I also checked in with him and asked him if he needed to stay home today because he was getting "Da Bad Germs." He said he didn't and that he wanted to go to his new school.

So I armed him in sweatpants (he calls jeans "hard pants" because he can't pull them back up and snap and zip them himself after he goes potty. He can do sweats by himself, so those have been deemed "soft pants.") and a comfy shirt and his favorite jacket and we headed out the door after I snapped the above picture. As I put his sister in the car he walked around and under one of our trees and, since it was raining, proceeded to get mud all over his shoes. Then he climbed on my car seat and into his car seat with his muddy shoes and proceeded to get his nice, clean, soft pants all full of mud. Great. But determined to keep us all happy and joyous I didn't say a word. And believe me, that was not easy. :)

There was a moment on the way to drop off his sister that made me get all teary and weepy. He leaned over in his car seat and took his sister's hand and said to her, "You are going to miss me today Peanut but I a big boy now and I have to go to my new school. You will be okay without me."

[Sob!!!]

So we dropped off sister and headed to his new school. He was happy and chipper and ready to get outside to the play ground. I talked to the director and she showed us his cubby and where to put his lunch box etc. and he just wandered outside by himself with the other kids. He got to the bottom of the stairs and immediately lunged into a Spiderman lunge and shot out his arms to the side and proceeded to pretend to start shooting webs. Gotta love kids, man. I was an emotional mess and this kid just wanted to shoot webs. So he met his teacher and was told where he had to go when he heard the bell ringing (on a red line near his classroom door) and I went inside to fill out paperwork and write checks (apparently new, good schools don't come cheap). I went back outside once before I left and he had been off playing and he came over with a look like he was going to cry but he was holding it in because he was a big boy. "I fall on my bum," he told me. I looked down and his feet were sopping wet and so were his pants. My best guess was that he had gone down a (very wet) slide and landed on his bum at the bottom. And there was no one there to tell him it was okay. So I gave him a hug and told him he would be okay and that I was sorry he fell on his bum but that the bell was ringing and it was time to go line up with the rest of the kids in his class. He nodded and walked off. And thus began his first day at big boy school.

I made them promise me at the front office that they would call me if he was having a rough or emotional time because I was able to come and pick him up for a half day and let him nap at home today if he needed to. But when I asked him that morning if he wanted to come home and nap at Mommy's house or at his new school he told me his school. So I didn't want to borrow drama where there wasn't any and told them to please call me if they thought he needed it. I them promised that I wouldn't call 12 times during the day and that I would assume "no news was good news." They were very sweet and told me I could call as many times as I needed to and that he was doing great for his first day and they promised to keep an extra eye on him.

So I left. And I didn't call. And I never heard from them. And I was there with my mom at the strike of 4:00pm ready to bring him home.

He was outside playing in a little house-thing with two other little girls. At least he wasn't playing alone... He saw me and said, "Can we go home now Mommy?" I gave him a hug and told him that yes, we would go home. The ladies at the front office said he did pretty well. He had a bit of a hard time in the morning and he seemed really tired. Then after nap time he didn't want to put his Lambie (lovey/blanket thing) back into his cubby. But after about 10 extra minutes he gave him a huge hug and a kiss and put it back. They mentioned several times he seemed really tired.

And he did act tired. He acted like he had been a weary traveler for months. I know that I personally had had a very emotional day and now that he was safely back in my clutches I was all of a sudden exhausted. So I assumed he was going through something similar to how I was feeling. Plus there was the whole sore throat thing and I assumed he didn't feel well...but he was clearly not himself. I asked him questions in the car ride to go pick up his sister and he didn't even answer. Just looked at me with a fixed stare and a half smile sometimes.

By the time we got home I was convinced that he was good and sick and I started making arrangements with my mom to take him tomorrow etc. He came home and rested on the floor on the carpet with his pillow and a blanket and wanted to watch Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on TV. So I let him. I sat with him for a long time in my lap and just rocked him cause I felt like he needed a little extra TLC. My sweet boy...

Then I was going through some paperwork they had given me and somewhere there was a paper about lunches. It mentioned that everyday they would send home the food your child didn't eat so that the parents could monitor what they were eating and likes/dislikes etc. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

I opened his lunch box and my suspicions were confirmed. He took one bite of his sandwich, ate maybe 2 grapes and perhaps one pretzel. His water bottle wasn't even opened. The Boy didn't eat anything. All day long. He wasn't sick, he was starving. If you have read my blog for any period of time you know we have food issues. He was nervous and the child barely eats on a good day. And of course this being his first day his teachers didn't know they needed to give him a little extra prodding. He doesn't act up, he doesn't ask for food, he just shuts down. He goes until he runs out of steam and then he stops. Like a car running out of gas. And my boy was out of gas.

I quickly made him some ravioli's, cut up an apple, some edamame and some bread with butter and told him dinner had come early. He sat down and ate like a child who...well, like I child who hadn't eaten a thing all day long. And about 10 minutes into the meal my child came back. He wasn't sick at all. Not in the slightest. Turns out he had a nice day and liked his teacher, although they didn't paint today which was a large disappointment. Some kid on the play ground accidentally grabbed the hood on his jacket and it pulled him and he liked the turtle in the tank the best. Sounds like a pretty normal first day.

So we have to tackle this whole food issue. He is getting older and once he gets to kindergarten there isn't going to be someone monitoring his food intake. So he has to learn this process on his own. But we have some work to do. For now, I packed his lunch for tomorrow with left over ravioli, some Pir.ates Boo.ty, more grapes and bread and butter. I will talk to the director tomorrow and let her know the situation in more detail.

But for now, I am going to sleep. I am so unbelievably tired. This has been an emotionally exhausting journey. And The Girl is sleeping soundly in her bed, and The Boy is safely cuddled in his blankets drifting off to sleep, and I need to follow. I will tackle tomorrow when we get there. For now I need to refuel myself. With lots of quiet sleep.

Edited to add: He woke up this morning (Tuesday morning) with a full-blown cold. So who knows how much of yesterday's actions were compounded by him feeling yucky? So on his second day of his new school...he's staying home. We're off to a great start!