Hudson's First Day of Pre-School

Hudson woke up ready and excited about going to school today.  After breakfast he and Harper got dressed and he was more than willing to have his picture taken holding his sign.  He'd say, "cheeeeeeese" and then after I'd snapped a few he would ask, "good?" wanting to know if he was good to go.

He wanted a picture with his bag, too.  He LOVES that thing and I can tell he feels so big to get to carry it.  In the picture with his arm up I asked, "who's ready for school?" and he yelled, "ME!!"

Harper wanted to help walking him to his class, so we took him first.  When we got to his class a ton of the other kids were crying.  When I tried to hang up his bag on the hook he got upset because he likes to hold it, so I just let him.  Then he walked right in, on a mission to find the "race cars."  The teacher told me she was going to close the door because so many of the parents were hanging around and looking in the class and it was making the upset kids more upset.  I walked away a little teary, but thankful that he seemed excited.

This was the first time in 6 years that all of my kids were at school at the same time. I definitely felt like a piece of me was missing, but I stayed busy running a few errands and before I knew it, it was time to pick them up. I got Harper first from the playground where her class was and the first thing she told me was, "I saw Hudson outside at the fire drill and his teacher was holding him and he was crying."  My heart sank.  First of all I was confused and annoyed that they had a fire drill on his first day of school and secondly I felt bad because I hadn't been worrying all day because I though he was fine and happy to be at school.  When we got to his class the door was still closed, but we were able to peek through a crack and see he was shaking some maracas with the other kids and participating with the class. I did notice he had his paci and Lambie though (the teachers said we could bring their things for the first two weeks and I had put it in his bag just in case).  As soon as they opened the door and he saw me he burst into tears.  :-(  My heart was breaking seeing him so sad and I was fighting back tears, too.  I just really wanted him to have a great day and to think school was fun.  One of his teachers told me he'd had a a great day - until the fire drill.  Then he was off and on upset for the last 30 minutes of the day.  Thankfully he calmed down soon after that and was able to tell me a lot of details about his day like what they had for snack and what he played with on the playground.  A little later on I asked him if thought school was fun and he said yes, so I'm hoping he is happy to go back on Thursday.

Tonight I got a sweet email that his teachers sent out to all of the parents with pictures and telling about their day and how well everyone did. It sounds like they were busy with some painting, music class, outside time and snack.  They did explain that the fire drill was set off by the church, not the pre-school, so no one at the pre-school knew to expect it.  That made me feel better and I love his teachers for sending out a little glimpse into their day.