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| Uncle Adam and Aunt Emilee were in town, so we left Tyson home with them for the first day drop off. |
Benson started going to the district preschool at the middle school on 9/4. It's Tuesday-Friday from 8-11. He's been worried about a few things. He was worried about not knowing anyone. On the morning of his first day, he said "Mom, I don't know how to do math. Will you help me with math at home?" It melted my heart to hear his worries. He's a tender little guy. I had to wake him up at 7:15 to get ready for the day. He's up by 6:45 most mornings. I had all four kids for his drop off, since Annika starts at 8:15 and he starts at 8. We navigated through all of the parents and little kids and found his classroom. I noted a few moms crying on their way out. When we got to the classroom, he was almost in tears and very clingy. So after unsuccessfully trying to get him comfortable for ten minutes, we all left to take Annika to school (a few minutes late- the first time we've been late to school!) Some parents were crying because they were dropping their kids off for their first day and I felt like crying because I didn't know how to get my kid to stay at school! :) On our way to Scootney, I told Benson I'd take him to the park if he stayed for preschool. He took the bait. :) So anticipating a lengthy stay at preschool, I dropped Esther and Tyson off with David at his shop and took Benson back to school. He was still clingy, but not close to tears this time. I stayed with him for breakfast, which they have every day at 8:30. When we got back to his classroom and they started their first activity, I said goodbye. He was great and I was so proud of him! I thought he would be excited and run to me when he saw me after school. Instead, he was mad that he wasn't riding the bus. It took some dragging to get him to come toward the car and away from the bus. Stubborn boy. We had fun at the park though and I'm sure he was glad he came with me. Oh, on the way to school, I asked him"what do you want to be when you grow up?" His reply: "why are you asking me that?" haha I think he just didn't know what I was asking him. I rephrased it: "what job do you want to have when you're an adult?" His reply: "Nothing. I don't want to have a job. I just want to work in the garden all day. Also I want to be a nerf gun guy." We've had some good laughs about that response! So, I think it's going to take awhile for him to warm up to the people at school. On the first day he said "I didn't make any friends today." So we talked about how it takes awhile to make friends. I keep asking him "did you talk to anyone at school today?" One of the days he responded "No. This boy tried to sit by me and I didn't want him to." I'm trying to be really positive to change his pessimistic tendencies around. I told him he's such a nice boy and lots of kids are going to want to be around him. He is such a sweet boy. He's just very guarded at this stage of his life. He rode the bus home for the first time on the second day of school. That wasn't the plan. I got there right when school got out to pick him up. But he was already loaded on the parked bus. I went up to check on him and he was perfectly content with riding the bus home. So I let him. And I cried as his bus drove off. It's hard to see him do big things without me. But I'm so glad that he's gaining some independence. He's just worn basketball shorts so far. I hope he likes jeans when it gets colder out. I have been loving the three hours in the morning with just two kids. It's been wonderful to get some things done while Tyson sleeps. Esther is fabulous at playing on her own. And she's a pleasant companion when I'm doing something she can help with.
