Preschool!

We had our preschool orientation this morning. Since we were out of milk and bread when we got up (thanks, Uncle Robbie!), Vincent and I were planning to go to the diner down the street for breakfast when Dan got up and decided to come along too! So it was a rare three-in-the-family morning, and really fun. The diner is next to the metra stop, so we watched the commuters go by and the trains pull in (and the occasional express fly by without stopping). V was such a good big boy, he ate almost the whole waffle, the egg, the bacon, and the sausage, then stole some of my eggs too.

We drove over to school, the whole way V was so excited talking about how he's going to go to school with mommy, mommy goes to school in HER building and Vincent would go to school in HIS building and so on, and kept saying he was so! excited! for! school! Pretty much right up until he got there. Then it was clingon time. We stayed in the room with him for about five minutes and then they were having "rug time" when everyone sits on their spot on the rug (marked by a different colored shape) and they sing and talk about the day ahead of them, etc. So V was sitting there quietly watching while we and another set of parents were in the back, when the director's assistant came and got us to go do paperwork. I didn't know how long we'd be gone, so I just went over to V and whispered in his ear to be sure to go tell the teacher if he had to go potty (he had refused to go earlier, all excited to go on the new! toilet! at! school!), and that we would be back soon.

So we went and it turned out to be about an hour of forms and reviewing policies and signing things. I was getting pretty anxious to see V, mostly because he hadn't gone to the bathroom yet today and I had no idea if he would be confident enough to speak up and ask. So we went back and V seemed fine, ran up and asked if we were leaving now, but as he turned away he was messing with his backside, and I thought hmmm. So I went over to his teacher and asked if he had gone, and she said that he had, he went to her and said he had to go so she sent him off to the little bathroom there in the classroom. Which is how I found out that they do not go in there with them, the kids are entirely on their own. (We pull his pants down for him and put him up on the potty, and when he poops we still wipe him off). So apparently he had gone in there, tried to pull down his shorts himself, but I'm guessing he didn't get them down far enough because he peed all over the back of his underwear and shorts. Then he apparently put them back on. So he was messing with his backside because he was wearing damp underwear!!! It looks like we're going to have a very busy couple of weeks of teaching him the finer details of this potty thing. The policy at the center is that they do not touch the kids at all. I just got off the phone with the teacher from the younger kids room where they do potty training, getting pointers from her on what to do.

Anyway, the teacher said that he had cried some when we were gone but then he was ok. As we went home, he kept telling us that he had "cried and cried because mommy and daddy were gone and we didn't come back". He also said that he was all alone there, without anyone to play with, and we asked him about the other dozen or so other kids and he said, oh yeah. It was kind of funny, actually. I just wish we had prepared him better for the hour or so alone. I really didnt' know that was going to happen.

It's also finally sunk in with Dan what a transition this is going to be for the boy. I plan to have Marissa here in the afternoons in July and August and have V go to half-days to get used to the idea, then transition to full days in September. Dan thought it was dumb, until we were there and it hit him that if I was planning to drop Vincent off at 7:30 in the morning five days a week, that meant V would be having to get up at 6:30, no hanging out time for an hour in the morning, no leisurely breakfasts, no TV or DVD, just up and eat and out. At least being able to come home for nap and unwinding in the afternoon will make this a little less of a shock, he now agrees. I'd like Dan to try to move his schedule a little earlier to help out, since he won't have anywhere to be in the morning and I'll be trying to get ready for work, but I'm not hopeful. I think I'm going to be continuing to do the morning routine by myself every morning, even if it gets exponentially more complicated and difficult. I'm pretty stressed out at the thought, but I'll just do what I have to do and make it work somehow. I'm sure it won't be as bad as it seems right now. Getting any exercise is going to require me to get up at 5 a.m., though.

I do think that Vincent is going to love it at school. After he said for the millionth time in the car that he was sad and cried and cried when we were gone and how he was all alone and he didn't like school, we asked him if he made any friends and he perked right up and said YES! I played with boys and girls!! So I think he'll be fine.