First Day of School

*Another long and boring post written mainly for my records.

The first day of preschool has come and gone. And while there were a few tears (only from me), I'd say it was a success. The night before we had a special meal, his choice: mac and cheese, green beans, cantaloupe and homemade bread. Turns out, the homemade mac and cheese was not his favorite (I guess he likes it out of the box better, but not me; this mac and cheese was decadent) and Josh got stuck in traffic due to closed bridges from the flooding (his usual 10-minute commute took him two-and-a-half hours!) and by the time he made it home, Will was beyond ready for bed and as I was beyond ready for Will to go to bed as well. Will got to open some presents (a few books, a tradition I'd like to keep for pre-back-to-school night) and then he was off to bed.

The next day, he couldn't contain his excitement. He wouldn't let go of his "leaf" poster and he insisted on wearing his Thomas the Train backpack (and not the cute LLBean backpack Granny bought). Since it was Josh's day off, we both accompanied him to his first day of school. Once at preschool, Will ran in to play with the toys and was completely engrossed, never giving neither Josh nor me a second thought. I tried to get his attention to say good-bye, but he wanted none of it.

When we came and got him, he was jazzed to see us. He ran up to his teacher and gave her a hug, telling her, "I can't wait to see you again, Ms. Stephanie!" It was the cutest thing ever. Then he told us that his favorite part of preschool was Ms. Stephanie. He loved story time, insisting that we check out the Monkey and the Alligator book at the library next time (we even found the very book on Amazon and reserved it from the library). He also told us that there were goldfish and grapes for his first snack, but that he was too tired to eat, so Ms. Stephanie told him to take a nap on his chair. He said he did (lately, "I am too tired" has been his excuse to get out of anything he doesn't want to do, though I'm surprised he used that for snack time). He came home with a nice drawing with his name spelled on it like this: LLIW. Maybe he's dyslexic or maybe it's because he is ambidextrous (he will NOT choose a favored hand. He changes hands mid-meal, mid-color, etc. Should handedness be manifest by now? Who knows?) or maybe it is because he ran out of room (he always starts the W too far to the right of the page). But he loved preschool and he can't wait to go back.

Since Josh was off, we got to have a mini-date, realizing that this could be the only time to be sans children before Lucy makes her appearance. So, we ran a quick errand to Lowe's and then went out to breakfast, where we mostly talked about our cute little boy and how we can't get enough of him and how weird it will be for me to not have him constantly by my side. He's been my partner for so long, it just was sad to be without him (but good, too. I guess that's the way of life). That was a real treat--a daytime date with free babysitters (well, besides the preschool tuition fee, that is).

Now Will gets to go back tomorrow and I'm looking forward to a few weeks of having a few hours of free time in the middle of the day for a couple days a week. Hooray for that. I already have a haircut and pedicure planned for the next two preschool times. That's putting my time to good use, no?

Now enjoy the photos of our cute preschooler.

Here he is showing off his new books.

The before school shot, complete with his leaf poster, filled with family photos for the first day of school.

Tell me he isn't adorable?

He walked right in and saw his cubby with his name on it and was tickled pink that he would have a cubby with his name on it and just for his Thomas back pack.

The Mad-family all proud on Will's first day of school (though Will doesn't look too thrilled, he really was. It's just that he's never thrilled about getting pictures taken).