School!

Today was my little guy's first day of "school". We spent the weekend mentally preparing him and talking tons about who he was going to see, what he was going to do and where Mama and Papa would be. Andrew's daycare is attached to the building that I work in which is really nice.

He woke up at 6:30 today (as opposed to his normal 8:30!) with lots of big hugs and kisses from Papa, went to the bathroom, got dressed, posed for the obligatory "first day of school" pictures and we hopped in the car. I have a 45+ minute commute but thanks to Andrew, I can now ride in the HOV lane. Unfortunately, traffic was really bad this morning so the HOV lane didn't help much. We pulled into the parking deck around 8:00 and walked over to school (stopping along the way for more pictures, of course).

We got to his classroom and as soon as we walked in, Andrew pipes up with a big "Good Morning!!". It was the cutest. He immediately found a giraffe to play with and every few minutes would come over to make sure I was still there. I was waiting for the other teacher to get there so that I could go over the paperwork with them and discuss Andrew's transition. Once Miss Keisha arrived, Miss Belinda and I started to head to the other room. I told Andrew I loved him, gave him a hug and a kiss and the little guy started to get a bit weepy. Nothing bad - some crocodile tears that he had to squeeze out by squeezing his eyes closed. Meet your next Academy Award Winner! :-) Miss Keisha came over and took Andrew to the playdoh and I'm sure his next thought was "Mom who??". :-)

After the intake with the teacher, I watched Andrew play outside through the window. He was just too cute. He started off playing on his own (climbing the wall on a playhouse - what else is new?) and then went over with some other kids to play in the sandbox. I didn't stick around much longer because I didn't want him to see me. I walked over to work and tried to focus. I told Ms. Belinda I would pick him up after naptime, which was about 2:00. Well, at about 11 I started to get fidgety and by 11:45 I was there to pick him up!

I walked in the room (he had his back to me), he turned around and I got a big "MAMAAAA!!" He then turned to his teacher with and ear to ear smile (if I do say so myself) and said "Look! Mama!!!" I sat down and had lunch with the kids and then asked Andrew if he was ready to go. He said "Go? Yes!". I said "Okay, get your bookbag and let's go to the machina!" He said "No, machina!! School!!". My kiddo wanted to stay - how cute is that? Of course, what he doesn't realize is that Mama needs to transition back to work slowly cause she is NOT ready for a full day yet. :-)

We got in the car and before we even made it to the highway, he was out cold. He was very clingy and lovey this afternoon. He made sure to remind me on many occasions that I left him to go to work. To be absolutely honest, I had no "mommy guilt" when I left him. I think I know that I'm not cut out to be home full time and he isn't cut out to be with me fulltime. He loves interaction and socialization and I think he's going to love being in school. I know I'm going to be very happy to be in a routine of sorts.

So, I leave you with a muli-media post. I really should spread this out across a few posts so I have something to post about but if I don't do that you won't see this stuff until Andrew is at least 18. Without further ado...





"Do you REALLY need to take my picture at 6:45 in the morning?!?!"



And a video... To set the video up, here is how this got started. One morning, we were having our morning hug and kiss ritual. I gave him a hug and said "Morning, cutie pie!" and he said "NO! Andrew Vasa!". I laughed and laughed and now it's become one of our silly conversations. Sorry about the lighting - sometimes the only way to contain a child for the sole purpose of video is to stick him in the tub! (Don't listen to my voice and yes - that is my child saying "No talking!!" in the middle of the video. He got that from Keith saying "Andrew, when Mama and Papa are talking you have to wait until we are finished before you talk". What a little wise guy!)




And a little night night song for you... By the way, this video and a lot of the pictures I take have helped me determine that I need to change the color of my kitchen (and clean up the piles of stuff I have everywhere). Everything comes out so dang yellow and I HATE it. Poor Keith has another weekend project!



Enjoy!
Becky