Today was the day. You’d think that Nathan would be the nervous wreck who couldn’t sleep all night. He required, however, waking at 8:10 a.m. this morning. We were to report to preschool at 9 a.m. so I finally had to wake him up. Not a good sign. I can tell this kid may be the one that you have to go into his room several times in the morning and give him a rundown of just how many minutes of snooze he’s got left. (This is what I get for doing that to my mom, eh?) Anyhow, I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I just kept thinking about how Nathan was growing up too fast and how I wanted him back in my belly where I could protect him. Then my mind started wandering and I couldn’t quite recall the last name of his teacher whom we just met last week. It was bugging me. I’ve realized that I want the best of both worlds….him being independent and going to preschool and also his childlike innocence to last forever. Needless to say I got little to no sleep last night. Partly because of the whole preschool issue but also because at 3:30 a.m. David woke up with severe arm pain because he’d been painting at work yesterday and worked really hard all day. Turns out we were out of muscle relaxing creme so I made Price Chopper run at 3:40 a.m. for the love of my husband. I knew that he desperately needed a good night’s rest.

When I returned I still couldn’t sleep that well. I was wondering if Nathan was able to rest so I went in and checked on him. He was out cold. So this morning after greeting him in his bed and taking him to potty and brush teeth and hair, and get dressed, we headed downstairs for breakfast. He has his usual….two scrambled eggs with cheese and cinammon toast, and washed it down with a cup of milk. I snapped a few photos and recorded my little “interview” of him which was really too cute on camera!

David followed us over to the preschool thinking he’d just bid Nathan farewell at the door of his classroom then head back home for a bit or off to work. Nathan and I talked on the ride over to preschool…a whopping 2.5 minute drive. We mostly talked about what he was going to do in preschool like play and learn and read and be respectful of friends. Then suddenly we were there pulling into a parking space. He followed Alexander who was eagerly walking down the pathway to the front door. I had to call to Nathan to wait up and not go inside just yet. I had wanted to snap a pic of him outside the school but didn’t get a chance to. We walked our way into the building and over to the Frogs room where Ms. Jan was eagerly awaiting the kids’ arrival. She greeted them with a “good morning” and a sweet smile. Nathan wasted no time making himself at home there – walking over to get the container of cars on the shelf and lining them up as he so often does.

The whole thing was sort of anti-climactic. I had expected (and wanted) this wonderfully touching goodbye with him but he sort of just left David and I at the door. He never looked back. In fact, I had to come back and hang out in the classroom for a while before everything began just to get a photo of him looking at the camera.

So, with the goodbye being what it was and Nathan safe and sound in class David headed home and Will and I went into the gym area where we were to stay for the short hour to get parent volunteer info, meet other parents, etc. It was great that they had donuts and juice for us so that was a nice treat.

After the hour was over Ms. Jan came in followed by the class full of kids. Nathan was 2nd behind her and eagerly ran over to me with a huge smile. I opened my arms to him and asked him how his first day went when he replied, “but, where’s Daddy??” He had the most sad look on his face and for a moment I thought he would cry. His eyes teared up and the corners of this mouth turned downwards. I kindly explained to him that Daddy went to work but that we would see him later and tell him all about it. He wiped his eyes gently and said “okay”. I think he felt sort of weird too since he never really said goodbye to us at the beginning of class. I was able to snap a pic of he and Ms. Jan before leaving.

We returned home and ate lunch and read some books about the first day of preschool. I also did a post-first day interview with him on camera. At about 12:15 he started playing with his hair and looked over at me and said, “Mommy, I’m tired.” I took him potty and upstairs for a very early nap. My sweet boy! I’ll remember this day forever.