First Day of Preschool

Today was Ryan's first day of 2 year old Preschool and he had such a great time. I was excited for him to be going but nervous since he's never been in any kind of daycare or school environment in which I left him. I just kept imagining, him just wanting to play, play, play and not sit down to eat, color, or listen to a story. It's not like we never let him color or read him books..he just doesn't want to sit down long enough to do it. Well, actually he will color--for about 2-3 minutes, then he's over it. And he will flip through a book but usually not while sitting with Dean or I. If I do happen to get him in a quiet moment, most of the time I'll have to either read super fast before he flips the page or just make up a story as he flips the page. So, back to preschool--Yesterday was open house and my mom and I took Ryan to meet the teacher & assistant teacher and the other parents & kids. It was a come & go between certain hours so not everyone was there at the same time. We met a few of the other kids and Ryan had a great time playing with the cars & trucks of course. We stayed about 20 minutes and Ryan didn't want to leave. All he knew was that he was having fun playing and then I had to take him away from his fun. Once we got outside the classroom, he was fine and I told him he would be back today. This morning he seemed excited when I put his backpack on him.


Each child has a space on the wall outside the classroom with a clothespin that holds their nametag & all the crafts, art projects or any other paperwork. When we got there today, I got his nametag and the teacher was at the door to greet all the parents & kids. The basic premesis is that the parent says bye and the teacher takes the child in the class...no hanging around or going in the classroom, it just makes it harder on the child (and probably the parent too) if the "goodbye" is prolonged. Once I saw Ryan off, I quickly went to the car because I could feel the tears welling up. I barely made it to the car. I don't know why. Well, actually I do--I'm VERY emotional. Even though it's just one day a week for 3 1/2 hours, to me, it's a milestone of sorts. My baby is growing up. I'm sure I will be a total wreck when he goes to Kindergarten or gets on the bus for the first time! But for right now, this is a big step. I did some errands, came home for a bit and then went back to get him. Once again, the teacher met the parents at the door and sent one child out at a time. She asked me if Ryan was a big eater and I told her sometimes..depends on his mood. She said he ate pretty quickly and then was trying to take the other kids food. Well, he is skinny but I swear it's not because we starve him! He came out and had a big smile on his face when he saw me. I grabbed his picture from the wall that he had colored and we left.

When we were walking out the door, a guy said Hi to Ryan and told me he was the computer instructor and said Ryan was in his class today and had a great time. Ryan will be able to do computer class & music class on the day he is there. Apparently the computer class just introduces them to the mouse, keyboard and lets them play games on the computer. I would be very interested to see that class!
I figured he would be exhausted by the time we got home but nope. He was more interested in playing with his cars (yes, I got him a few cars as a surprise) then going up to take a nap. When he finally did go down for his nap, he only slept for a little over an hour. Maybe he was still hyped up about his fun day!