Evan starts school!

It's been a big week for Evan so far.  This past weekend he had his 4th birthday water party (more to come on that soon), learned to ride a bike without training wheels(!), and then today he started pre-k!  This Wednesday he will celebrate turning 4 years old, so the big week will continue!  

I had started prepping for today a few weeks ago.  I got him a lunch box (which I gave him as a gift at his party) and was labeling spare clothes and a crib sheet with his name or initials.  However, we'd been trying to mentally prepare Evan for this since we registered him a few months ago.  He seemed very excited about going to school all of this time, so I was hoping today would go well.  And really, it did.  In fact, I think John and I took it harder than he did (yes, we had some tears in our eyes after dropping him off at school!).  

We could tell Evan was nervous though.  First of all, he had a nightmare overnight last night that drove him into our room in a fright.  So much so that he even missed the last step coming down the stairs to our room.  Poor guy.  So he slept the night with us, and while most mornings he can sleep through our alarms, this morning he was wide awake.  When it was time to go, I wanted to be sure to get some "first day of school" photos.  He didn't want to stand still, but I think I got a few that were okay, including a silly one too.  

Ready for his first day of school!

This new school doesn't serve lunch (like his previous daycare did), so it was a new thing for us to have to pack him a lunch.  Plus it's a peanut free school, so Evan's favorite PB&J sandwiches were out of the question.  He helped choose what I packed last night though (a turkey and cheese sandwich, a cheese snack block, and a peach that I cut up).  I also threw in a bag of chips and a cookie (for dessert) as some extra surprises for him.  We packed it into his new Lightning McQueen lunchbox, which he really was pretty excited about, and once we got to the school that's all he wanted to carry in.  He had just seen another boy carry in a similar lunchbox and I think he got excited about doing the same.   Of course, I wanted some more photos out in the daylight in front of the school, but he refused to look at me.  I really think his nerves were full on at this point.

Looking pensive...

As soon as we went into his classroom, his teacher welcomed him and introduced herself in a very loud and commanding, but friendly, voice.  He was a bit bashful, in the sense that he didn't say a word back to her, but he reached out with his left hand and grabbed her right hand.  None of us knew what he was doing at first, but then John and I realized he was trying to shake her hand!  I guess John had told him to introduce himself by saying his name and shaking people's hand, so while his nerves kept him mute, he attempted the hand shake!  It was pretty cute.  Then we took his backpack, lunch box, and other bag of "stuff/supplies" to his cubby and his teacher said he could join into any center he wanted.  He immediately ran to the carpet where there was a box of legos and a few other boys playing.  At that point, he seemed pretty settled in and John and I had to go over there to tell him we were leaving.  He didn't seem too bothered by that news and kept playing (no real hugs or anything given!).  

As we left his room, that's when our eyes were welling up with tears.  Was it because he didn't seem to need hugs from us?  Was it because we were leaving him in a new and unfamiliar place?  Was it because we were proud of how brave he was about starting something so new and unfamiliar? I think all of the above, and then some.  The school sent us a few emails throughout the day with photos of Evan doing various activities and looking like he was having fun, so all was well.  As far as we know, he did great.  It's hard to know if there were any (mis)behavioral incidents, but I'm sure they were flexible with him given it was his first day.  We'll see how things progress as he goes back in the coming weeks.  He's just going MWF for now anyway.  

Another kid who was pretty resilient about this big change was Emma!  When we dropped her off this morning, Evan wanted to go in and say hi to our daycare lady.  She was surprised to see him on her doorstep this morning for sure, and I wasn't sure if we'd be able to pry him away easily.  However, he went up and gave her a hug and said he was going to school, and then was ready to go.  And then so was Emma!  She tried to follow Evan right back out the door! :(  We were worried then that she would have a hard time with this change.  However, when our daycare lady picked her up to keep her, she didn't fight it and we found out at the end of the day that Emma didn't even ask once for Evan!?  We thought for sure she'd be asking for him all day! 

So, I guess I can say we all survived today pretty well.  Evan was in a bit of a mood when he got home though....acting out and all.  Not sure if that was something he learned from another kid or if he was just acting up because of how today's schedule/routine was different and he needed some extra attention from us after all of it.  Either way, I hope that doesn't continue, because after we missed him so much it was frustrating to get a misbehaving boy back for the evening.  He finally settled down though around dinner time and we had a nice evening playing outside after that. He got to play with his new stomp rocket and ride his bike some more before it was bedtime.