Keep your fingers crossed.

Today was the first day for preschool to start back up after "winter break". I had been dreading it. Tyler had been telling me he wasn't going for the past month. Today started off even worse. He told me he would just stay home. He screamed, he cried. I put on my happy face but was secretly dying. I was torn. Do I keep him home and just accept that he's not ready? Do I force him and risk him regressing in other areas (potty-training, etc?). Either way I figured I had to at least TRY to bring him. I figure this is probably the time in his life with the least transitions, being that daddy is home and he's not aware of the new baby on the horizon. So, I decided it was now or never and I figured I was gonna have this be something that IS going to happen, rather than a choice (because, if you know my son, you know he's always gonna choose what is easiest to him).

I went in his room and took his "other blankie" (the double to THE blankie that he's obsessed with, but he'll have nothing to do with this double) and cut a small corner out of it and told him to put it in his pocket. I told him that he could reach in his pocket and feel it if he felt nervous. He seemed okay, but when I went to take him out of the house he freaked. I took him, crying and fighting, to the car and explained again that it really wasn't a choice so he could stay there and cry for 2 hours or he could stay and have a good time. He thought about that for a while and decided he wouldn't cry. Sure. So I took him in, showed him where the bathroom was (it's outside the classroom and last time we were there he wasn't PT yet). He used the potty right away, fairly confidently walked in the classroom, said hi to his teacher and then started SCREAMING. So I quickly said goodbye, told him I'd see him after playground time and we'd go to lunch, the teacher peeled him off my leg, and I left. Then I went into my car and cried.

I waited approximately 5 minutes for my friend to come drop off her daughter and I asked her to peek on Tyler for me. When she came out she INSISTED that Tyler's face was bright red, but that he was currently sitting on the teacher's lap and NOT crying. So she was an awesome friend and convinced me to come to Walmart with her, so we killed time and came back at the end of the day and he was FINE!

Granted, this has happened before (where he was fine at pickup) but the teacher insists that he never cried after the first 2-3 minutes, and he tells me he didn't cry (last time he admitted to crying) and he says he's gonna go back tomorrow and "not cry, not even a little bit".

So keep your fingers crossed!

A funny note: Tyler has two teachers at preschool, a male and a female. He told me that "my teacher" gave me a hi-five. I asked him which teacher and he says, in a pronounced tone as if to say "duh", "MY TEACHER". So I said "WHO gave you the hi-five. Mr. Dave or Ms. Heather?". To which he replies "Ms. Heather is my teacher. Mr. Dave is not my teacher. He's just a grown up boy."

Get used to it kid, all men are just grown up boys. He, he.