Drew's First Day of Preschool

Drew started preschool on Tuesday, and so far, so good. I think I was more nervous than he was, mostly because aside from grandparents' houses, I don't think I've ever dropped Drew off and left him somewhere without me or Mike there as well. When Zach started preschool he had had play dates without me around and had gone to Vacation Bible School without me. Plus, I'll be honest, Zach tends to be a little easier to get along with and has always been more of a go-with-the-flow kind of kid than Drew. But, after our initial tour of the classroom and meeting of the teachers last week, Drew seemed pretty excited about starting preschool.

Zach didn't have school on Tuesday because of a teacher work day, so he was able to go with to drop Drew off on his first day. Drew is going to the same preschool Zach went to, and I love the fact that even though more than a whole year has gone by since Zach has been there or seen the teachers, yet the director greeted Zach by name as we walked up and commented on how tall he had gotten. She also greeted Drew by name, which was also impressive. Going back into those preschool rooms with Zach made him seem so much older, too. Drew showed Zach right away where his cubby is, and then they explored the room a little together, with Drew showing Zach some things and vice versa. The associate teacher in the classroom is the same one Zach had for his 3 year-old year, so that's neat, too. She was happy to see Zach again as well.

Normally I will just drop Drew off in the drop-off line, but for the first day I wanted to walk him in. So after checking out some stuff, I told Zach we needed to head home. I wanted to make a quick exit for Drew's sake and because Jake was definitely ready to get home for his nap. I gave Drew a hug and told him good-bye, and Zach, Jake, and I headed to the back door of the classroom. As we started down the short hallway that leads to the main hallway, which was somewhat crowded with other parents, I heard, "Mom!" and saw Drew coming out of the room, and I thought, "Oh, no. Here we go." But I was pleasantly surprised to have him say, "I love you." I told him I loved him, too, and good-bye again. About 1 minute later I heard, "Mom!" We turned around and there was Drew again. This time he came out and gave Zach a big hug. That got me a little choked up. It was just so sweet. He came out one more time before we got away, and this time he just said good-bye again. So I think he was a little nervous, but thankfully the drop-off went well.

When we picked Drew up, he was happy and said he had a good day. He could tell me they read The Kissing Hand, he went potty and washed his hands in the little sink, they had apple juice and little teddy bear crackers (Teddy Grahams) as a snack, that he got to be the counter that day and counted that there were 6 gingerbread men, and that they didn't get a lot of time to play on the playground, but that he played pirates out by himself at recess. That seems like more information in one day from Drew than I ever got from Zach in two years of preschool! His second day of preschool (on Thursday) he was able to tell me it was Jarrett's birthday so they had cupcakes (he guess his was "caramel flavored, maybe"), he was the line leader to go home, and he sang me the song they learned that day, remembering all the words and getting the melody well enough that I could tell it was to the tune of Frere Jacques/Where is Thumbkin. I wonder if the details will always be so forthcoming from Drew. I hope so!

Here is Drew with his preschool bag. We have to purchase the bag from the preschool, but then we can decorate it with the child's name and whatever else. Drew originally wanted Bolt, the dog from the Disney movie of the same name, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so he "settled" on Lightning McQueen and Mater. Mike played Susie Homemaker last weekend and while I did bunches of other stuff, he ironed on the cars and the letters of Drew's name.

Here are my three boys and me just before leaving to take Drew to school. I can't believe this picture turned out as well as it did.

While Drew was at preschool that first day, Jake napped, and Zach and I enjoyed some one-on-one time (a rarity now that he's in school all day) by reading a chapter book (it's fun to have Zach old enough to enjoy longer books), having a snack, and just hanging out. I had promised the boys that after preschool we'd feed some geese and have a picnic, so we headed up to the little lake/pond at the mall, where we know there are always geese and often ducks. It was a perfect, sunny day, and as we got to the water's edge. there was just one duck. The first bit of bread went in and suddenly we were bombarded by geese, ducks, and fish.

There was one bold little duck who knew that the best way to get bread was to get out of the water and get close. You can see him in the above picture, just at the right-hand side. He had just climbed out of the water.

Zach tried holding bread in his open hand and see if the duck would come get it, but he kept moving and spooking the duck, so it didn't work out. I was ok with that.

Drew thought about trying to hand-feed it also, but ended up just putting his bread down. This duck just kept getting braver and braver!

Jake was pretty interested in watching the ducks and geese from his stroller.

After feeding the birds, we found a bench and sat to have lunch. I was a little annoyed because another mom and her 1.5-2 year-old son came over by us and started throwing bread to the birds, so of course they got out and came up by us while we were eating our lunch, expecting us to toss them food as well. It wasn't a big deal, but she had the whole lake to choose from, so why pick right where we were eating? It just seemed weird. I would have tried to have chosen a spot away from where people were eating if I could, and we were about the only other people there, so it's not like the place was crowded. But, whatever. The birds pestered us some but not too much, so no harm was done.

Oh, while it's on my mind- two quick cute things Drew has said lately:

1. Instead of accident, he says asskident, i.e. "I spilled my water on asskident." It's pretty cute.

2. He also told me the other day that he saw a volcano on Dinosaur Train, and that volcanoes "interrupt" when smoke comes out of them.

3. He also has told me that he can't play with girls at preschool, and that I'm the only girl who's fun to play with. Then he quickly added to that list the two neighbor girls who are friends of Zach's and our friends Anna and Lucy. "They're my best girlfriends," he said about Anna and Lucy.

4. Finally, my nephew Anders turned 3 this past week, the day before Drew turned 3 and a half. I called to talk to Anders when the boys weren't with me, and when I told Drew that night that Anders had ridden on a train on his birthday, Drew got really upset, saying, "That really hurts my feelings that Anders went on that train without me! I wanted to go!" I tried to explain that Anders didn't do it to hurt Drew's feelings and that we were too far away to go on the train anyway, but he just kept saying, "That hurts my feelings! Anders hurt my feelings!" Then I said it wasn't Anders' idea, it was his mom and dad's idea, as something special for Anders' birthday, and Drew said, "Then Aunt Sandy and Uncle Will hurt my feelings. Was there a station for that train? I want to go to that station and on that train. That wasn't fair!" all while big tears were rolling down his cheeks. The next morning he found his play cellphone, and he pretended he got a call from Anders, who was calling to apologize for asskidentally hurting Drew's feelings by going on the train without him. It was all really cute and pretty funny.