All Summer I was planning for both Sam & Max to start preschool in September. I had everything ready. Max was pretty much potty trained, they had new back packs, I had reserved each of them spots at Bright Beginnings (where Bo went) and had been daydreaming of all the things I could do or get done while I was kidless. It would only be 3 hours 3 days a week but the possibilities were endless. I would go to the gym, grocery shop, organize the closets, catch up on blogging, go through the last 5 years of papers and bills in our filing cabinet, take up swimming again, meal plan, sit in quiet, meet with a personal trainer, clean the house, read a book, (wait, no, just kidding, how did that get in there?!), repaint our bathroom, make a quilt out of the boys' baby clothes, recover our kitchen chairs, did I say go to the gym, and oh yes, very important, go to the bathroom without interruption.
It was going to be GLORious!
And then I took them to visit the school last week and all of that changed. I could feel my freedom being sucked out of me as I watched the boys play. Don't get me wrong, they did fabulous. They played for about an hour and had a blast. But it was BECAUSE they played so well together that I realized Sam really needed to go to preschool alone. He spent much of the hour helping Max and taking care of Max rather than exploring and mingling with the other students. He's the middle child and has never done anything alone. So as much as I would love love love some "me" time, and love love love doing all the things I had planned, it was obvious that Sam needed HIS "me" time more.
However, Sam did not think he needed any "me" time and threw fits the following week, screaming that he did not want to go to school alone. He wanted to go with Max and if Max wasn't going, either was he.
So fast forward to the morning of the first day of school and the fits continued. TOO.MUCH.SCREAMING.FOR,TOO,LITTLE.CAFFEINE! How on Earth was I going to get this kid in the car and to school without one of us killing the other?
Light bulb!
"Sam, we at least have to take your school supplies to school because your teacher needs them." It's amazing I could even think with all that noise but it worked. He calmed down, got dressed and we left. Phew! Thank goodness he has a big heart and wanted to help out. But Lord knows this would only buy me some time. We would eventually get to school.
Which we did but only AFTER I tried to fix my low tire at the house and instead made it flatter while trying to inflate it because the air compressor did work and I could not figure the damn thing out and in all my geniusness, kept trying which in turn just kept making the damn thing even flatter. What the hell?! Flipping the switch on and off and on and off did not work. Tire was still getting flatter. My face getting redder. I just wanted to get Sam to school. Why won't this work? What the f*@! am I doing wrong?! And why . . . is this thing not plugged in?! . . .
With the tire now fixed we started to take Bo to school when I realized that I was on 'E' and forgot my purse at home. You can't be serious! Can the morning go anymore wrong? So we dropped Bo off at school, went all the way back home, grabbed my purse, raided the shed for a few gallons of gas to chug into the tank and headed out again to drop the school supplies off at preschool. (wink wink)
But I digress. School. We did eventually get to school.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! NOOOOOO! I DON'T WANT TO GO! (insert kicking, punching, flailing, clawing and making a ginormous scene here). It was bad. Really bad. But thank goodness for Mrs. Dupont who has been a preschool teacher for many many years. She just picked up Sam, punching and all, said, "Goodbye Mom. He'll be fine," and walked into the other room.
My heart sank but I knew she was right. And she was. When I called 20 minutes later to check in, he was already chatting her ear off about his new GI Joe lunch box. "Look at my new lunch box. I like my new lunch box. Daddy likes it too. It's GI Joe. Bo does not like it. Do you like it?"
My heart raised back into place and Max I went shopping. Everything was going to be ok.
Obviously we did not get any pictues BEFORE school but I did manage to take a couple when I picked him up. He had a great day.
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