the monumental first day

after spending very nearly every single waking minute of his four years of life with me, mikey began his first day of preschool yesterday.  i both dreaded and looked forward to the day.  dreaded it because i knew yesterday would be the start of his school career and that each year would see him spending more and more time away from me.  looked forward to it because i knew that he would enjoy this special year, learning and growing so much.  i’ve been feeling a bit spread thin lately dividing my time and attention between now three and not feeling like i’m able to give any one of them my very best.  and so, i looked forward to preschool knowing it would provide him the activity and fun that my being in pure survival mode could not.  plus, this would give me the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with allie (while lauren naps), which is something i’ve not been able to do with her.  now, i’ll get a chance to teach her the things i was able to teach mikey at her age: letters, sounds, numbers, shapes, colors, coloring, cutting– though she has picked up quite a bit of all this already from mikey, but now i’ll get to fill in whatever gaps she might have.  not to mention reading time, and just general playing together!

thankfully, phil was home yesterday and took mikey for his first day, sparing me the thrill of having to haul the three kiddos in the car, out of the car, into the building to sign him in and drop him off (and on time, too.  heaven help me pull that off!), only to repeat the whole procedure three hours later.  that joy awaits me tomorrow.

so, after mikey’s favorite breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and toast with butter, they were off!  of course, i couldn’t let this very special very first day pass without admonishing phil to take many pictures. 

my boy, all grown up.

all atwitter with excitement!

all right folks, let’s get this preschool show on the road!

peering in to his destiny.  only, as it turned out, was not quite his destiny as phil forgot the teacher’s name (even though we had gone to the parent orientation thursday night where we met his teacher and sat in her room as she spoke to all of us.  even though i told him her name twice before they left that morning.  and told him the room number.  stinkin’ sleep deprivation!) and so they waited outside the wrong room. 

ah!  here’s the right room!

with his new teacher, miss amy.  a veteran 15-year preschool teacher. 

the fresh, start-of-the-new-year room:

all the little duckies lined up in a row:

is this what they call a bittersweet moment??

ps- phil came back and reported that there were no tears (for either of them!), mikey just marched in, ready to do his thing!  and though i felt a pang as he walked out the door, there were no tears for me either since i had to jump right back and tend to allie and lauren as soon as they left.  we’ll see how it all goes tomorrow!