Preschool here we come....

Thankfully things got better as the morning went on! Christian was not too interested in getting his picture taken on the first day of preschool. He was way too upset that McKenna was holding one of his trains.
And this is the look I got when I asked him to smile. I have an entire series of pictures that look just like this! I tried, but he was having no parts of it.

For the last two weeks Christian has cried (like a sad, real, lip quivering cry) every time we talk about preschool. He just wanted me to go too. So finally this weekend I told him that I would walk him to his classroom and I would stay outside for 10 minutes (which he thinks is a long time) and then I would go to Target to get some shopping done and then I would come right back. As soon as he found out I was going to Target while he was at school he suddenly got excited about school. He HATES shopping and was thrilled at the idea that he didn't have to go. So as long as I'm going shopping while he's at school, we're good!

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Last night we read the book The Kissing Hand. It's such a sweet story about a little raccoon who wants his mommy to go to school with him (sound familiar) so she kisses the palm of his hand and tells him that anytime he misses her he can just put his hand on his face and feel her kiss.

When Christian got to school and saw the other kids he started to get excited, especially when he saw his buddy Carter! Carter is seriously an answer to prayer for me!! Christian knows him from church and they ended up being in the same class at the last minute! God knew Christian was going to need a little friend to get him through. Carter being there has made all the difference for Christian.

By the way, they're holding buckets b/c they don't do backpacks at his school. The teachers found it too frustrating to try and get them to zip them up and they couldn't see inside to know if the parents sent anything, etc. So all the kids take buckets which makes it easier to carry artwork home and things like that! Christian's bucket of course is covered with all things Thomas!

He was just fine as he walked into his room. No tears from him (only a few from me later as I drove away from the school and left my big boy there).

And he got busy during table time.

And when I came back two and a half hours later he was busy playing on the playground.

He was having so much fun he didn't even see me! But I did notice the teacher's playing with the kids (not just standing around supervising). They were running and jumping around for real! I was quite impressed. I love them already :)

And McKenna had the worst time without Christian. She desperately wanted to go on the playground and she wanted to play babies in Christian's classroom and she had no one to entertain her at Target. Poor girl.

I'm so thankful that Christian's first day was great. He heard a silly story, sang LOTS of songs, did a matching paper, played on the playground, saw some butterflies coming out of their cocoons and he got to paint! What a day!

And he told me that he only needed his "kissing hand" once.