houston: we have a school

It's been a long season of holidays, travels, visitors and visiting, and disruptions to our routine. I have so many memories to share and will start with the story of Luke's new school. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as we made our way through our preschool list, one of our neighborhood options -- The Crayon Box -- let us know that they had an opening in their 2-year old classroom. For those of you who have had the pleasure of spending any time with Luke recently, you'll know that he's ready for school. He's an accomplished scribbler or artist, depending on how you look at it, he loves circle time, he thrives on preschool-like routines, and he's interested in (if not quite ready to play with) other kids. He knows his colors, shapes, and most letters.

When we toured Crayon Box, Luke joined right into the activities. At my tour, he jumped into the ballet class and will gleefully pirouette to show you all that he learned. And, the toe/heel da-dum! move is equally adorable. When Jean-Max toured with Luke, our little man joined right into the outside play, going down the curvy slide and navigating the stairs with the other kids. Our boy is ready.

We signed up Luke for Wednesdays and Fridays (full days), and planned to transition gradually, starting out with Luke staying just an hour or two, then staying a bit longer, and working up to full days. Luke's very first day was two weeks ago. He was all prepped -- engineer hat, ready to find his cubby, reciting the routine ("Luke do circle time, then ballet, then outside time, then Mama come back.") When it was time to say goodbye, Luke was a bit dazed, but I took him over to circle time, kissed him on the head, and made my way home. Then, all the emotions broke loose for our sweet little man. Another boy started crying for his mama and Luke remembered that his mama was gone, too, and poor Luke cried off-and-on for the entire time I was gone. He was too sad to do ballet, and too sad to play on the slide. When I came back, Luke was in the teacher's arms, in his jacket ready to leave, and sobbing. When he saw me, he leapt into my arms like a koala bear and sobbed, "Mama walk walk walk away with the stroller! Luke alone! Luke all alone! Luke miss Mama!!!!" It was heart-wrenching to see how distraught he was. I just held him as tight as I could, let him know how proud I was that he tackled his first day at school, took him home and snuggled. He then slept for 3 1/2 hours, which may have been his longest nap ever.

Since then, he's been very slowly getting better at the whole school thing. He's still there for just 2 hours and saying goodbye is still very hard (unlike the first day, where he said goodbye pretty easily, he now knows what it means and protests loudly). But, last Friday after 4 school days spread over 2 weeks, Luke was able to actually play. He still cried at the goodbye with Dada, but he reorganized himself at circle time, enjoyed the outdoor play time, and even drew a picture to bring home to Mama.

His next school day is tomorrow. Wish us luck.